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BACON'S 



HISTORY OF THE REIGN 



OF 



KING HENRY VIL 



SonDon: C. J. CLAY and SONS, 
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, 
■ AVE MARIA LANE. 
iglasgoto: 50, WELLINGTON STREET. 




3L«tpjig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. 
i^eia lork: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



[>/// Rights reserved^ 



IPitt |P«ss Ssrifs. 



BACON'S 

HISTORY OF THE REIGN 



OF 



KING HENRY VII 



WITH NOTES 



BY THE LATE 

REV. J. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D. 

LADY MARGARET PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. 



STEREOTYPED EDITION. 



CAMBRIDGE: 

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 

1902 



^11^ 



First Edition 1876. 
Repfinted 1880 {twice), 1S81 {tzvice), 1885, 1888, 1889. 
Revised Edition 1892. 
Reprinted 1902. 



• \ 



V 



PREFACE. 

A new edition of this book being required advantage 
has been taken of the opportunity to revise and correct 
some of the notes. A few additional notes which appeared 
to be needful have been appended. In addition to this 
the dates to which the principal matters of the text 
refer have been inserted on each page, and instead of 
the Index of Proper Names, a complete Index, both 
for text and notes, has been supplied. These changes, 
suggested by experience, will, it is thought, add con- 
siderably to the usefulness of the volume. 

J. R. L. 

June, r892. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

Introduction v — xvi 

Chronological Table xvii— xx 

Text i— 221 

Notes 223—302 

Glossary • 303—313 

General Index . . . ' . . . . 315—344 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. Of the Author. 



Francis Bacon, afterwards Baron Verulam and Viscount 
St Albans, was born 22nd Jan., 1560 — i, at York House, 
in the Strand. His father was Sir Nicholas Bacon, Queen 
Elizabeth's Lord Keeper, and his mother, who was the 
second wife of Sir Nicholas, was Anne, daughter of Sir 
Anthony Cooke. She was a lady of considerable learning, as 
was shewn by her translation of Jewel's Apology from Latin 
into English. Bacon's youth was passed partly in London, 
and partly at the country residence of the family at Gorham- 
bury near St Albans. At twelve years old he became a member 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, and continued his studies in 
that University until his sixteenth year. The father designed 
his son for diplomatic life, and therefore after entering him of 
Gray's Inn, sent him to France as one of the suite of Sir 
Amyas Paulet, who went to Paris as English ambassador in 
September, 1576. But after little more than two years of such 
life, the prospects of young Bacon became utterly changed 
by the sudden death of his father in February, 1578 — 9. By this 
event Bacon was compelled to return to London, and settled 
down at Gray's Inn to the study of the law as the profession 
by which he was to live, his father's death having occurred 
before it had been possible for him to make provision for the 
children of his second marriage. Bacon was admitted to the 
bar in 1582, but strove, along with his legal occupations, to 
carry on those studies in which his soul delighted, and con- 
B. H. b 



vi INTRODUCTION. 

ceived at this early time the plan of his great work, and began 
to put some contributions towards it into form, to the first of 
which he gave the ambitious title of " Teinporis Partus Maxi- 
musP Two years later he became a member of Parliament, 
his first constituency being Melcombe Regis in Dorsetshire, 
and his parliamentary duties for various boroughs (Taunton, 
Liverpool, Middlesex, Ipswich, St Albans, &c.) continued with- 
out a break for more than thirty years. In 1589 the gift of the 
reversion of the sinecure office of Clerk of the Council in the 
Star Chamber seemed t3 promise an income which would 
relieve him from the necessity of following the law as his 
career, but the office did not become vacant for nearly twenty 
years, and thus the world was deprived in great part of 
those services to philosophic research which unbroken leisure 
would have enabled Bacon to render. Endeavours were made, 
between 1594 and 1596, to obtain for him one of the offices of 
Attorney- General, Solicitor-General, or Master of the Rolls, 
which were all vacant during those two years, but the reign of 
Ehzabeth came to an end before such fortune fell to Bacon's 
lot. 

It was in January, 1597, that he published the first edition 
of his Essays, the first of those works by which his name 
became famous in the list of English men of letters. This 
edition comprised only ten essays, nor were the essays in- 
creased to their present number or brought into their present 
form till the third edition in 1625. These short compositions 
are masterpieces both of thought and expression ; every sen- 
tence is replete with ideas enough for a sermon, and each 
expression is as polished as if the author had designed it to 
become a maxim. In 1605 appeared, in EngHsh, his two books, 
" Of the Proficietice and Advauncement of Learning.^^ They 
were dedicated to King James, and form the basis of what was 
afterwards expanded into the nine books (in Latin), "Z?<? 
Augmentis Scientiariim^'' This was meant to form one section 
of the great work which Bacon planned, but never was able 
to complete, the " Instauratio Magna," or a great reconstruc- 
tion of Science. 



INTRODUCTION. vii 

In r6o6 Bacon married Alice Barnham, the daughter of a 
London merchant, and in the next year he was made Sohcitor- 
GeneraL Soon after (in 1608), when it was not so much 
needed, the long expected Clerkship of the Star-chamber fell 
vacant, and thus an addition of from ;^i5oo to ^2000 a year was 
made to Bacon's income. We cannot here do more than 
enumerate his further legal promotions and the names of his 
chief works. In 161 3 he was advanced to be Attorney-General, 
in 161 7 to be Lord Keeper, and in the January of the following 
year he was made Lord Chancellor. In this year too, on 
July 9, he became a Peer, taking the title of Baron Verulam, 
from the ancient name of the borough near which he had lived 
in youth and with which a long period of his parliamentary 
life had also been connected. In 1620 he presented to the 
king his '■''Novum Or-gamim^^ a work (a fragment only of his 
great design) on which he had been engaged, in such leisure 
as he could find, for thirty years, and which forms the second, 
and most complete, section of the '^ Instauratio.' In January, 
1620 — I, he was created Viscount St Albans; but his career, 
which for more than a dozen years had been growing more 
and more illustrious, was soon to be terribly changed. On the 
15th March in this year he was charged, in the Report of a 
Parliamentary Committee, with certain acts of corruption in 
the administration of justice, and the enquiry terminated on 
May 3rd in a sentence which removed him for ever from 
official life. In a brief notice like the present no examination 
of Bacon's conduct can be given, either in the prosecution of 
the Earl of Essex, for his part in which he has been severely 
censured, or in those matters which brought about his 
fall. But it is due to the memory of so great a man to 
record that the latest and most complete examinations into 
his whole conduct prove that neither in one' case nor in the 
other does Bacon deserve the blame which has been cast 
upon him. He was desirous to serve Essex so long as he could 
be true to the calls of friendship without being false to his 
higher duty as a citizen. And in his office of judge the faults 
which he admitted were faults of his age and not of the man, 

b2 



viii INTRODUCTION. 

He did no more than fall in with a practice which had prevailed 
for generations, and concerning which every judge on the 
bench was as guilty as himself. No instance can be pointed 
out among his judgments where justice was warped by his 
favour to either side, nor in connection with which any one 
has ever arisen to say that Bacon's decision was bought. 

The remainder of Bacon's life was given to literature and 
philosophy, and, among his other works, the " History of King 
Henry VH" was put forth in 1622. With the exception of 
Sir Walter Raleigh's ^^ History of the World'' and Knolles' 
" Histoty of the Turks'' there is no historical work produced 
at or near this period which will in any degree bear comparison 
with the pohshed style of Bacon. That the student may com- 
pare with this work the historical writings of those who were 
Bacon's immediate predecessors, some passages have been 
inserted in the notes pp. 287 and 296 from Hall's and Grafton's 
Chronicles. The perusal of a few lines will suffice to shew 
what a great stride had been made in English prose com- 
position during the reign of Elizabeth, and to what a degree 
of perfection it had been brought by the powers of such 
writers as Bacon and Hooker. 

Beside the History of Henry VII, Bacon, during this retire- 
ment at the close of his life, wrote the '•^ New Atlantis^^ an 
incomplete M^ork, which may be called a philosophical ro- 
mance, and which describes an imaginary realm where the per- 
fection of which Plato only gave an augury in his " Republic^' 
was set forth as achieved. He also wrote several separate 
treatises intended to take their places in the completed 
'■^ Instauratio," among which may especially be mentioned the 
'■'' Silva Silvarum; or, Natural History in Ten Centuries l"* 
which was to make a part of the third division in the 
^^ Instauratio," which division had received from its designer 
the title of the '•'' Phcenomena of the Universe.^' He also worked 
at a scheme which he had previously laid before King James 
for a Diciest of the Laws of England. He collected a volume of 
witty sayings frcm all quarters, which he sent forth with the 
title of " Apophthegmata," and he issued a third edition of his 



INTR OD UCTION. ix 

Essays. This was the last work which he was able to ac- 
complish. It came forth in 1625, and on April 9th (Easter- 
Day), 1626, Francis Bacon died. 

For more information on the details of Bacon's life, the 
student may consult the Hfe of him put forth by Dr Rawley, 
who was his chaplain ; also the carefully written life in the 
edition of Bacon's Works by Mr Spedding ; and a short 
digest of the main events of Bacon's career, both legal, 
political and literary, will be found appended to Mr W. Aldis 
Wright's Edition of " The Advancement of Learning'" (Claren- 
don Press Series). 



II. Of the History. 

Though the History of Henry VII was put into the form 
in which we possess it in 1621 and the following year, immedi- 
ately after Bacon's downfall, and was probably undertaken as 
a solace in this great reverse of fortune, the thought of such 
a work had been long before his mind. Mr Spedding has 
pubHshed in his edition of Bacon's works, (Vol. VI. pp. 17 seqq.) 
a fragment of such a history, of the existence of which SpeedS 
whose history was published in 1609, knew and had made 
good use. This fragment was probably composed when 
Bacon conceived the idea of putting forth a history of England 
that should begin with the union of the Houses of York and 

1 John Speed (1552— 1629) was one of the most industrious wiiters 
of this period on the subjects of antiquities and history, and his 
compilations, derived in great part from the collections m the libraries 
of Sir Robert Cotton, and the contributions of Sir Henry Spelman 
and other antiquaries, are of considerable value. Speed was originally 
a tailor and so had not great advantages from education, but yet his 
''History of Great Britaine'' was long the best in existence. He 
wrote also the " Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain;' and a work 
on the Genealogies of Holy Scripture under the title of 'M cloud oj 
IVitnesses." 



X INTR OD UCTION. 

Lancaster, and be brought down as closely as was possible to 
the times at which he was writing. 

For such an undertaking the materials at the command of 
any writer were various. First, was the work of Fabyan^, 
which is a sort of Annals, whereof the most important parts 
concern the city of London, in which its author passed the 
most of his life. Of this work Bacon does not seem to have 
largely availed himself. But of the Latin History of Polydore 
Vergil* he seems to have made great use, and to have been 
led by its inaccuracies into several errors, which in some few 
points, to be noticed hereafter, have impaired the otherwise 
accurate character of his work. The mistakes of Polydore are 
such as might be expected in the work of a foreigner writing a 
history of England. Bacon seems also to have consulted another 
Latin writer, Bernard Andre ^ for some few points in his history. 
The three chronicles also, of Hall'*, Grafton^, and Stow^ sup- 



^ Robert Fabyan (d. 1512) was an alderman, and in 1493 was 
chosen one of the sheriffs of London. He is in some sort connected 
with our history of Henry VII, as in 1496 he was one of a deputation 
chosen to ride to the king " for redress of the new impositions raised 
and levied upon English cloth " in the lands of the Archdulie Philip. 
This was an impost of a florin for every piece of English cloth imported 
into the Netherlands. The duty was withdrawn in 1497. Fabyan's 
work " The Concordance of Histories,'''' which at first is a mere com- 
pilation from monkish chronicles, becomes towards its close a very im- 
portant record of many events which, in London, came under the 
writer's immediate observation. 

'^ Polydore Vergil (d. 1555) was an Italian ecclesiastic, born at 
Urbino. He was sent over to England for the collection of Peter's 
Pence, and while in England was preferred to the Archdeaconry of 
Wells. His History of England in Latin consists of twenty-seven 
books, and was begun by him in the latter years of Henry VII, and 
finished in the following reign. 

3 Bernard Andre (d. about 1521) was bom at Toulouse and was an 
Augustinian friar. He was present in London when Henry VII 
entered the city after the Battle of Bosworth Field. In 1496 he be- 
came tutor to Prince Arthur, and wrote a Latin Life of Ilenry VII, 
and also in the same language some short notices of events in the 
reign of Henry VIII. 

^ Edward Hall (d. 1547) was a lawyer, and ultimateb' became one 
of the judges of the Sheriff's Court. His History of the Union of the 
Two Noble and lllnstre families of Lancastre and Yorke''"' brings the 



INTR on UCTION. xi 

plied him with material which he used in such wise as best 
suited his purpose. He has also drawn some few matters from 
Sir Thomas M ore's ^ '"'• History of the Life and Death of King 
Edward V, and of the usurpation of Richard IIV Bacon 
must also have made some use of the manuscript treasures of 
Sir Robert Cotton, even though under the sentence which was 
imposed upon him he was excluded from London. The result 
proves abundantly how much greater was the genius which he 
brought to his labour than that of any of his predecessors in 
the field of historical labour. But it is clear that with materials 
of such a character, and so irregularly and imperfectly col- 
lected, the same correctness of statements is not to be looked 
for as might fairly be expected when Rymer has made all the 
texts of treaties and details of negotiation easily accessible, 
and the Calendars of State Papers form a trusty guide through 
the maze of conflicting statements. In several places in the 
notes such errors as have, from this want of trustworthy 
information, found their way into the text of Bacon's History, 
have been noticed, but the details of Henry Vllth's connection 
with France and Brittany, and the character of his intervention 

history down to the year rsS'Z. It was not published till 1548, the 
year after the death of the author, and had been completed by 
Grafton. 

^ Richard Grafton produced in 1569 what he calls ""A Chronicle 
at large and metre History of the affayres of Englande and Kinges of the 
same, deduced from the Creation of the worlde, dr'r." Grafton had more 
facilities than his contemporaries for the production of his works, for 
he was a printer as well as an author. 

^ John Stow (1525 — 1605) was a most diligent, accurate, and 
impartial recorder of pubhc events. He, like Speed, was a tailor, 
but his decided turn for antiquarian research soon asserted its power, 
and he abandoned his trade, and is said to have travelled on foot 
through a large part of England for the purpose of a personal in- 
spection of the historical treasures of the cathedrals and large libraries. 
He published a '' Summary of English Chronicles" and "A Survey of 
London f which latter is the best known of his works. He wrote, but 
was never able to publish,, a large Chronicle or History of England. 
He fell into great poverty towards the end of his life. 

1 Sir Thomas More (1478 — 1535), the famous author of the Utopia, 
and the friend of Colet and Erasmus. Afterwards he was made Lord 
Chancellor, and was put to death for his religious opinions along with 
Bishop Fisher. 



xu INTRODUCTION. 

In support of the Duke of Brittany, seem to need more comment 
to put them in their true light than could be given in a note. 

It was late in the summer of 1487 that the ambassadors 
of Charles VIII came to England to pray for the King's 
assistance for France against Brittany, " or at least that he 
would stand neutral." Now it is to be noted that in Bacon's 
account of the king's reply it is stated that he " was utterly 
unwilling to enter into war with France." It is probable that 
the reason for this unwillingness is to be discovered in the 
entries in the Calendar of Patent Rolls for this third year of 
the king's reign. We find there notices of preparation (Feb. 
1487 — 8) of forces against the King's enemies congregating on 
the sea. Now that the danger apprehended was connected 
with Ireland we may gather from subsequent entries where 
mention is made (May 25th) of those who " come from Ireland 
to treat on matters concerning the sound rule of peace in that 
land," and at the same place is found a list of general pardons 
for Irishmen. So that Henry's mind was full of his own 
affairs at the time of the French embassy. But he sent 
Urswick over to France and to Brittany likewise, and as 
Bacon's narrative represents the story (p. 49), it was after the 
mission of Urswick that the siege of Nantes took place. 
But we know now that the siege of Nantes was commenced 
on June 19th, 1487 (only three days after the battle of Stoke), 
and raised on the 6th ot August following, at which time the 
King was too busily concerned with his own disturbed realm 
either to receive or send ambassadors to France. We see 
therefore that when the French ambassadors did come Henry 
would be aware that the French had just before been com- 
pelled to raise the siege of Nantes, and might be pardoned 
for supposing that the strength of Brittany was sufficient to 
hold out for some time, and that therefore there would be an 
opportunity for negotiations so as to conclude the difficulty 
without engaging England in a war, for which, owing to recent 
troubles, she was little fit. 

Lord Woodville's crossing into Brittany, which we know 
from the Paston Letters (May, 1488) the king had counter- 



INTRODUCTION. xiii 

manded, took place in time for the small succours, which that 
nobleman brought with him, to be present at the battle of 
St Aubin, July 28th, 1488. But these were the only English 
engaged in the cause of Brittany up to that date, and by the 
treaty of Verger (2 1 Aug., 1488) hostilities between France and 
Brittany were brought to a close. 

It was in the following November, " after keeping his 
All Hallow-tide at Windsor" (see Herald's narrative, Cott. MSS. 
Jul. XII. fol. 49, quoted by Mr Spedding), that Henry sum- 
moned not a parliament, as stated in the text (p. 53), but a 
great council at Westminster, to debate on what was to be 
done in the matter of Brittany. For the duke of Brittany 
had died on Sept. 9th, 1488, and Charles's claim of wardship 
now began to be asserted over the young duchess Anne. We 
find from Rymer (xil. 347 seqq.) that ambassadors were sent in 
December after this great council to France, Brittany, Spain, 
and Flanders, and Henry's third parliament met Jan. 13th, 
1488—9, and voted supplies for the succour of Brittany. It 
seems therefore that the result of the battle of St Aubin, which 
had upset all Henry's calculations about the power of Brittany, 
ended the first part of the war of France against that duchy, 
and in that Henry had taken no active part, and it was not 
until the death -of the Duke that any new claim was put 
forward by Charles, and then Henry felt that he must prepare 
for the helping of Brittany. The speech therefore put into the 
mouth of Chancellor Morton as uttered at the great council in 
November (p. 53) is wrongly conceived. The army of the 
French king was not before Nantes, but making its way 
through Brittany, and taking town after town by way of en- 
forcing Charles's claim to be the guardian of the young Duchess. 
This, Bacon, misled by Polydore, did not know, and so could 
not put into the mouth of his speaker. 

The statement likewise (p. 60) about the sending of new 
solemn ambassadors to France just at the time of the battle of 
St Aubin is another error. These ambassadors (Urswick and 
Frion being members of the embassy) were sent Dec. nth, 
1488, to treat about terms between France and England and 



xiv INTRODUCTION. 

Brittany, a course needful enough for the succour of the duchy, 
and preparatory to the sending of an army if nothing came 
of the embassy. 

All the account therefore (pp. 60—61) of Henry's conduct 
in sending succours to Brittany immediately after the battlt 
of St Aubin, which succours came too late, and returned almost 
immediately, is entirely incorrect. No English troops, except 
those with Lord Woodville, had been sent at all, nor was 
Henry in a position to send any till the commencement of the 
next year, when he did dispatch a force, which arrived in 
Brittany in April, 1489, and was acting in behalf of the duchy, 
while other English succours were engaged in Flanders in the 
cause of Maximilian. We learn also from Rymer (Xii. 337) 
that in the August of that year reinforcements were being 
sent to these troops in France, and that commissions were 
issued for raising soldiers " destined for Brittany " may be seen 
from the Calendar of Patent Rolls for the 14th, 15th, and i6th 
of August, 1489. The effect of these double operations of 
English troops in Flanders and Brittany was that Charles 
consented to make peace with Maximilian at the treaty of 
Frankfort, and agreed thereby to give back to Brittany all the 
towns which had been taken since the death of the Duke, and 
to this treaty Anne of Brittany gave her acceptance in Nov., 
1489. During all this time the project of marriage between 
Maximilian and Anne was maintained, and it was probably 
about this period that the proxy marriage (see p. 77) took 
place; and had Maximilian really taken the Duchess to wife, 
as he might have done, there would have been an end to 
Charles's scheme of annexing Brittany to the French crown. But 
taking advantage of the remissness of the Archduke, Charles ef- 
fected by marriage what he had not been able to achieve by war. 
It was in the winter of this year 1489 — 90 that the commis- 
sioners from France came to England and made the proposi- 
tions contained in the speech recorded on pp. 79 seqq., in 
consequence of which Henry appears to have made up his mind 
that he must go to war with France, and during the whole of 
that year he was busily engaged in levying troops and forming 



INTRODUCTION. xv 

d confederation with Maximilian and Ferdinand and Isabella 
to make actual war against Charles if he should invade them or 
the territories of the duchess of Brittany i. Pubhc proclamation 
of this convention was made in England, on 17th Sept., 1490. 
Now it was not till 6th Dec, 1491, that Charles married Anne, 
and so brought matters to an end, so far as the possession of 
Brittany was concerned. The proceedings of the year and a 
quarter which intervened between these two dates seem to have 
been somewhat as follows. The Duchess on the strength of the 
proxy marriage, and in consequence of the convention just 
mentioned, assumed the title of Queen of the Romans (cf. 
D'Argentrd, XIII. 57), and this caused Charles, from whom all 
knowledge of the marriage had been kept secret, to determine 
on taking some decisive step. He renewed the hostilities 
which had been suspended since the treaty of Frankfort, and 
in February, 1490 — i, made himself master of the town of 
Nantes, the siege of which on a former occasion he had been 
obliged to raise. (See Rymer, 12 June, 1490, for an account of 
the commencement of this second investment of the town.) 
The tidings of this new movement on the part of the French 
king roused Maximilian to send his embassy (see p. 89) to 
England, and in the middle of the year 149 1 Henry called not 
a parliament, as it seems, but, in accordance with a former 
precedent, a great Council as precursor of a parliament (for the 
parliament proper did not meet till 17th October, 1491), and to 
them he made his speech about his intention to go to war with 
France. The subsidies needful seem to have been voted (con- 
ditionally no doubt) by this assembly, for a commission for 
levying them exists dated 7th July, 1491. The narrative of 
Bacon is easily intelligible from this point (p. 93). The par- 
liament when it assembled was in every sense merely a war 
parliament. The troops prepared were sent over as described, 

* For the numerous authorities v/laich may be cited in evidence of 
the activity of Henry in his preparations for war with France, see 
Spedding, vi. no, to whose guidance for an explanation of these 
events the editor desires here to make very full acknowledgment. 
Mr Spedding's notes leave little to be said on points connected with 
the: elucidation of the histoiy. 



xvi INTR OD UCTION. 

on Sept. 9, 1492 (p. 100), and the failure of all assistance from 
Maximilian, as well as the conclusion of a peace between 
Ferdinand and Charles, made the overtures of peace from the 
French king and the conditions therein contained appear, as 
Bacon has it, " to the king's taste." The treaty of Estaples 
was concluded on Sunday, Nov. 3, 1492. For the better ap- 
preciation of the sequence of events throughout the reign a table 
is appended of the principal events of the reign of Henry VII, 
ranged according to the regnal years of the king, which are so 
frequently alluded to in the text without the date A.D. being 
given. Of course it will be seen that as the reign of Henry 
commenced Aug. 22nd, 1485, his first regnal year did not end 
till Aug. 2 1 St, i486, and therefore an event in his first year may 
have occurred in the latter half of 1485, or in the former half of 
i486, and SO for every other year. It will also be observed 
that between the ist of January and the 25th of March in any 
year the date is given with double figures ; thus : Marriage of 
Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, Jan. i8th, 1485—6. The 
reason for this notation is, that the historical year has for a 
very long period begun on January ist, but the calculation of 
years used in ecclesiastical and legal documents made the 
year to commence on March 25th, until the two beginnings 
of the year were brought into conformity on Jan. ist, 1753. In 
the date above quoted, of Henry's marriage, the historical entry 
thereof would speak of it as having taken place Jan. i8th, i486, 
but the ecclesiastical year i486 had not yet commenced, and 
therefore in the registers of the Church or of the courts of law 
this day would be entered as part of the year 1485. To express 
this the form 1485 — 6 is used. It will be seen that in the notes 
large use has been made of the Latin translation of the Life of 
Henry Vllth, which was certainly made under Bacon's super- 
vision, and perhaps partly by himself (as is indicated in the 
dedication which precedes the Sennones Fideles), and was 
designed to make the history accessible to foreigners who 
knew no English. It appeared that no better method could be 
adopted for explaining the language of our author, than this 
use of what may be called his own commentary on the work. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



Regnal 

Years of 

Henry VII. 

I, 



II. 



III. 



Battle of Bosworth Field 

Issue of Commissions to the Nor- 
thern Counties in anticipation of 
a war with Scotland 

Coronation of Henry VII 

Henry's yfrj/ Parliament 

Marriage of Henry VI I and Eliza- 
beth of York 

Truce with Scotland for three 
years 

Birth of -Prince Arthur 

Council at Shene 

Lambert Simnel lands in Lanca- 
shire M 

Battle of Stoke 

Siege of Nantes commenced 
„ „ afterwards raised 

Embassy sent to England from 
Charles VIII about 

Henry's second '^ Parliament 

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 

Murder of James III of Scot- 
land 

Battle of St Albans (St Aubin) 



22^ Aug. 1485. 



25 Sep. — 
30 Oct. — 

7 Nov. — 

18 Jan. 1485 — 6. 

3 July, i486. 
Sept. — 
Feb. i486 — 7. 

4 June, 1487. 
16 June, — 

19 June, — 
6 Aug. — 

Sept. — 
9 Nov. — 

25 Nov. — 

II June, 1488. 
28 July, — 



^ It is worth notice that August 2 1 (the day before the battle of 
Bosworth) is mentioned as the first day of the King's reig^, in the act 
concerning those attainders spoken of in the text, p. 16. 1. 19. Whether 
this be an accident or an intentional ante-dating of Henry's reign it is 
impossible to discover. (See Statutes at large i Hen. VII. c. 6.) 

^ The acts of this parliament are confused in Bacon's narrative 
with those of the third Parliament (see notes). He seems to have had 
no information about this parliament of 1487. 



XVlll 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



IV. 



V. 

VI. 
VII. 



VIII. 



IX. 



X. 



Treaty oC Verger i 

Death of the Duke of Brittany 

Great Council at which the 
Speech of Chancellor Morton 
(p. 53) was made 

Solemn Embassy from England 
to France 

Henry's third'^ Parliament 

First succours sent by Henry to 
Brittany 

Northern subsidy riot 

Embassy from Charles VIII to 
England 

Third Parliament ends 

Prince Henry (afterwards Hen. 
VIII) born 

Henry's y^z^rM Parliament 

Charles VIII marries Anne of 
Brittany 

Thanksgiving in St Paul's for the 
Conquest of Granada 

Pope Innocent VIII died 

Pope Alexander VI elected 

English troops sent over to France 

Henry VII goes over to France 

Treaty of Estaples 

Embassy of Poynings and War- 
ham to Flanders 

Commerce with Flanders for- 
bidden 

Raid by the Scots on the North- 
ern border 

Poynings made Lord Deputy of 
Ireland 

Execution of Sir William Stanley 

Italian league against Charles 
VIII 

King Henry visits his mother at 
Latham 

Warbeck on the coast of Kent 



21 Aug. 1488. 
9 Sep. -- 



Nov. — 

II Dec. — 
13 Jan. 1488—9. 

March, — 
April, 1489. 

Nov. — 

27 Feb. 1489—90 

22 June, 149 1. 

17 Oct. — 

6 Dec. — 

6 April, 1492. 

25 July, — 

I [ Aug. — 

9 Sept. — 

6 Oct. — 

3 Nov. — 

July, 1493. 

18 Sep. — 

Nov. — 

13 Sep. 1494. 
16 Feb. 1494 — .5. 

25 March, 1495. 

25 June, — 
3 July, — 

^ , Was the treaty under which the hostile operations of France 
agains! dttauy were terminated till after the death of the Duke of 
Brittany. 

^ This parliament was prorogued on '23rd February and met again 
on the 14th October following. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, 



XIX 



Henry'syf/?/? Parliament 


14 Oct. 1495. 


Warbeck arrives at Stirling 


20 Nov. — 


Commissioners sent from Flan- 




ders to England {intercursus 




magntis) 


Feb. 1495 — 6. 


Intercursus magnus ratified 


April, 1496. 


Henry VII ratifies the Italian 




league 


13 Sept. — 


Great Council at Westminster 


24 Oct. — 


Cap of Maintenance sent from 




the Pope 


I Nov. — 


Henry's sixth Parliament 


16 Jan. 1496 — 7 


Subsidy granted 


Feb. — 


Cornish rebellion begins 


May, 1497. 


Encampment on Blackheath 


16 June, — 


Battle of Blackheath 


17 June, — 


Lord Audley beheaded 


28 June, — 


Cabot's first voyage 


June, — 


The Scotch attack Norham 


July, - 


Warbeck leaves Scotland 


6 July, — 


Perkin besieges Exeter 


17 Sept. — 


Treaty with Scotland concluded 


30 Sept. — 


King Henry at Exeter 


7 Oct. — 


Warbeck carried in procession in 




London 


20 Nov. — 


Palace of Shene burnt 


21 Dec. — 


Irish Parliament meets 


28 March, 1498. 


Charles VIII of France dies 


7 April, 


Warbeck's confession read pub- 




licly 


9 June, — 


Prince Edward born 


Feb. 1498 — 9. 


Ralph Wilford hanged 


13 Feb. 1499 


Treaty with Scotland (containing 




arrangements about letters com- 




mendatory) 


12 July, — 


Fox commissioned to treat of a 




marriage with Scotland, King 




James with Princess Margaret 


1 1 Sept. — 


Perkin Warbeck executed at Ty- 




burn 


23 Nov. — 


Earl of Warwick beheaded 


29 Nov. 


Prince Edmund died 


12 June, 


Death of Cardinal Morton 


Oct. - 


Earl of Suffolk leaves England 


Aug. 1501. 


Marriage of Prince Arthur with 





XX 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



XVIII. 



XIX. 
XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 



the Princess Catharine of Ara- 

gon 
Arrest of the friends of the Earl 

of Suffolk 

Death of Prince Arthur 
Sir James Tirrell executed 
Marriage of Princess Margaret 

to King James IV. 
Prince Henry created Prince of 

Wales 
Henry's seventh Parliament 
Death of Queen Isabella of Spain 
English Ambassadors at Segovia 
Earl of Suffolk brought to London 
Death of Philip of Castile 

Treaty for marriage of Princess 

Mary with Charles of Castile 
Henry VII. dies 



14 Nov., 1501 

March, 1501 — 2. 
2 April, 1502. 
6 May, — 

25 Jan. 1502 — 3. 

18 Feb. — 

16 Jan. 1503 — 4, 

26 Nov. 1504. 
14 July, 1505. 
March, 1505 — 6. 
25 Sept. 1506. 



17 Dec. 1508. 
22 April, 1509. 



THE 

HISTORY of the REIGN 

OF 

King HENRY the Seventh. 



a H. 



TO THE 

Most Illustrious and Most Excellent 

PRINCE 

CHARLES, 

PRINCE of WALES, 

DUKE of CORNWALL, 
EARL of CHESTER, etc. 



It may please Your Highness, 

r N part of my acknowledgment to your Highness, 
-*■ I have endeavoured to do honour to the memory 
of the last King of England, that was ancestor to 
the King your father and yourself; and was that 5 
King to whom both unions may in a sort refer : that 
of the roses being in him consummate, and that of 
the kingdoms by him begun : besides, his times 
deserve it. For he was a wise man, and an excellent 
King ; and yet the times were rough, and full of lo 
mutations, and rare accidents. And it is with times, 
as it is with ways : Some are more up-hill and down- 
hill, and some are more flat and plain ; and the one 

I 2 



4 DEDICATION. 

is better for the liver, and tlie other for the writer. 
I have not flattered him, but took him to life as well 
as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better 
light. It is true, your Highness hath a living pat- 
5 tern, incomparable, of the King your father : But it is 
not amiss for you also to see one of these ancient 
pieces. God preserve your Highness. 

Your Highness's most humble 
and devoted servant. 
Francis St. Alban. 



1485] 



THE 

HISTORY of the REIGN 



OF 



King HENRY the Seventh. 



AFTER that Richard, the third of that name, King in fact 
^ only, but tyrant both in title and regiment, and so com- 
monly termed and reputed in all times since, was, by the 
divine revenge favouring the design of an exiled man, over- 
thrown and slain at Bosworth-field ; there succeeded in the 5 
kingdom the earl of Richmond, thenceforth styled Henry 
the seventh. The King, immediately after the victory, as 
one that had been bred under a devout mother, and was in 
his nature a great observer of religious forms, caused Tc 
Deum hiudaimis to be solemnly sung in the presence of the 10 
whole army upon the place, and was himself with general 
applause and great cries of joy, in a kind of military election 
or recognition, saluted King. Meanwhile the body of 
Richard, after many indignities and reproaches, the diriges 
and obsequies of the common people towards tyrants, was 15 
obscurely buried. For though the King of his nobleness 
gave charge unto the friars of Leicester to see an honour- 
able interment to be given to it, yet the religious people 
themselves, being not free frOm the humours of the vulgar, 
neglected it; wherein nevertheless they did not then incur 20 



6 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1485 

any man's blame or censure: no man thinking any ignominy 
or contumely unworthy of him, that had been the execu- 
tioner of King Henry the sixth, that innocent Prince, with 
his own hands; the contriver of the death of the duke of 
5 Clarence his brother; the murderer of his two nephews, one 
of them his lawful King in the present, and the other in 
the future, failing of him, and vehemently suspected to have 
been the impoisoner of his wife, thereby to make vacant his 
bed, for a marriage within the degrees forbidden. And al- 
io though he were a Prince in military virtue approved, jealous 
of the honour of the English nation, and likewise a good 
law-maker, for the ease and solace of the common people ; 
yet his cruelties and parricides, in the opinion of all men, 
weighed down his virtues and merits ; and, in the opinion 
T c of wise men, even those virtues themselves were conceived 
to be rather feigned and affected things to serve his am- 
bition, than true qualities ingenerate in his judgment or 
nature. And therefore it was noted by men of great under- 
standing, who seeing his after-acts, looked back upon his 
2o former proceedings, that even in the time of King Edward 
his brother he was not without secret trains and mines to 
turn envy and hatred upon his brother's government ; as 
having an expectation and a kind of divination, that the 
King, by reason of his many disorders, could not be of long 
25 life, but was like to leave his sons of tender years; and 
then he knew well, how easy a step it was, from the place 
of a protector and first Prince of the blood to the crown. 
And that out of this deep root of ambition it sprung, that 
as well at the treaty of peace that passed between Edward 
30 the fourth and Lewis the eleventh of France, concluded by 
interview of both Kings at Piqueny, as upon all other oc- 
casions, Richard, then duke of Gloucester, stood ever upon 
the side of honour, raising his own reputation to the disad- 



1485] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 7 

vantage of the King his brother, and drawing the eyes of 
all, especially of the nobles and soldiers, upon himself; as if 
the King, by his voluptuous life and mean marriage, were 
become effeminate and less sensible of honour and reason 
of state than was fit for a King. And as for the politic and 5 
wholesome laws which were enacted in his time, they were 
interpreted to be but the brocage of an usurper, thereby to 
woo and win the hearts of the people, as being conscious to 
himself, that the true obligations of sovereignty in him 
failed, and were wanting. But King Henry, in the very 10 
entrance of his reign, and the instant of time when the 
kingdom was cast into his arms, met with a point of great 
difficulty, and knotty to solve, able to trouble and confound 
the wisest King in the newness of his estate ; and so much 
the more, because it could not endure a deliberation, but 15 
must be at once deliberated and determined. There were 
fallen to his lot, and concurrent in his person, three several 
titles to the imperial crown. The first, the title of the lady 
Elizabeth, with whom, by precedent pact with the party 
that brought him in, he was to marry. The second, the 20 
ancient and long disputed title, both by plea and arms, of 
the house of Lancaster, to which he was inheritor in his 
own person. The third, the title of the sword or conquest, 
for that he came in by victory of battle, and that the king 
in possession was slain in the field. The first of these was 25 
fairest, and most like to give contentment to the people, 
who by two and twenty years reign of King Edward the 
fourth had been fully made capable of the clearness of the 
title of the white rose or house of York; and, by the mild 
and plausible reign of the same King toward his latter time, 30 
were become affectionate to that line. But then it lay plain 
before his eyes, that if he relied upon that title, he could be 
but a King at courtesy, and have rather a matrimonial than 



8 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1485 

a regal power; the right remaining in his Queen, upon 
whose decease, either with issue, or without issue, he was to 
give place and be removed. And though he should obtain 
by parliament to be continued, yet he knew there was a 
5 very great difference between a King that holdeth his crown 
by a civil act of estates, and one that holdeth it originally 
by the law of nature and descent of blood. Neither wanted 
there even at that time secret rumours and whisperings, 
which afterwards gathered strength and turned to great 

lo troubles, that the two young sons of King Edward the 
fourth, or one of them, which were said to be destroyed in 
the Tower, were not indeed murdered, but conveyed secretly 
away, and were yet living: which, if it had been true, had 
prevented the title of the lady Elizabeth. On the other 

1 5 side, if he stood upon his own title of the house of Lan- 
caster, inherent in his person, he knew it was a title con- 
demned by parliament, and generally prejudged in the com- 
mon opinion of the realm, and that it tended directly to the 
disinherison of the line of York, held then the indubitate 

2o heirs of the crown. So that if he should have no issue by 
the lady Elizabeth, which should be descendants of the 
double line, then the ancient flames of discord and intestine 
wars, upon the competition of both houses, would again re- 
turn and revive. 

25 As for conquest, notwithstanding Sir William Stanley, 
after some acclamations of the soldiers in the field, had put 
a crown of ornament, which Richard wore in the battle and 
was found amongst the spoils, upon King Henry's head, as 
if there were his chief title; yet he remembered well upon 

30 what conditions and agreements he was brought in ; and 
that to claim as conqueror, was to put as well his own party, 
as the rest, into terror and fear; as that which gave him 
power of disannulling of laws, and disj:»osing of mens for- 



1485] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 9 

tunes and estates, and the like points of absolute power, 
being in themselves so harsh and odious, as that William 
himself, commonly called the conqueror, howsoever he used 
and exercised the power of a conqueror to reward his Nor- 
mans, yet he forbore to use that claim in the beginning, but 5 
mixed it with a titulary pretence, grounded upon the will 
and designation of Edward the confessor. But the King, 
out of the greatness of his own mind, presently cast the die; 
and the inconveniences appearing unto him on all parts, 
and knowing there could not be any interreign or suspension 10 
of title, and preferring his affection to his own line and 
blood, and liking that title best which made him indepen- 
dent; and being in his nature and constitution of mind 
not very apprehensive or forecasting of future events afar 
off, but an entertainer of fortune by the day; resolved to 15 
rest upon the title of Lancaster as the main, and to use the 
other two, that of marriage, and that of battle, but as sup- 
porters, the one to appease secret discontents, and the other 
to beat down open murmur and dispute; not forgetting that 
the same title of Lancaster had formerly maintained a pos- 20 
session of three descents in the crown; and might have 
proved a perpetuity, had it not ended in the weakness and 
inability of the last prince. Whereupon the King presently 
that very day, being the two and twentieth of August, as- 
sumed the style of King in his own name, without mention 25 
of the lady Elizabeth at all, or any relation thereunto. In 
which course he ever after persisted; which did spin him a 
thread of many seditions and troubles. The King, full of 
these thoughts, before his departure from Leicester, dis- 
patched Sir Robert Willoughby to the castle of Sheriff-Hut- 30 
ton in Yorkshire, where were kept in safe custody, by King 
Richard's commandment, both the lady Elizabeth, daughter 
of King Edward, and Edward Plantagenet, son and heir to 



10 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1485 

George duke of Clarence. This Edward was by the King's 
warrant deUvered from the constable of the castle to the 
hand of Sir Robert Willoughby; and by him with all safety 
and diligence conveyed to the Tower of London, where he 
5 was shut up close prisoner. Which act of the king's, being 
an act merely of policy and power, proceeded not so much 
from any apprehension he had of doctor Shaw's tale at Paul's 
cross, for the bastarding of Edward the fourth's issues, in 
which case this young gentleman was to succeed, for that 

ro fable was ever exploded, but upon a settled disposition to 
depress all eminent persons of the line of York. Wherein 
still the King, out of strength of will or weakness of judg- 
ment, did use to shew a little more of the party than of the 
King. 

1 c For the lady Elizabeth, she received also a direction to 
repair with all convenient speed to London, and there to 
remain with the Queen dowager her mother; which accord- 
ingly she soon after did, accompanied with many noblemen 
and ladies of honour. In the mean season the King set 

2o forwards by easy journeys to the city of London, receiving 
the acclamations and applauses of the people as he went, 
which indeed were true and unfeigned, as might well appear 
in the very demonstrations and fulness of the cry. For 
they thought generally, that he was a Prince, as ordained 

25 and sent down from heaven, to unite and put to an end 
the long dissensions of the two houses; which although they 
had had, in the times of Henry the fourth, Henry the fifth, 
and a part of Henry the sixth, on the one side, and the 
times of Edward the fourth on the other, lucid intervals and 

30 happy pauses; yet they did ever hang over the kingdom, 
ready to break forth into new perturbations and calamities. 
And as his victory gave him the knee, so his purpose of 



1485] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI 1. ii 

marriage with the lady Elizabeth gave him the heart; so 
that both knee and heart did truly bow before him. 

He on the other side with great wisdom, not ignorant 
of the affections and fears of the people, to disperse the 
conceit and terror of a conquest, had given order, that there 5 
should be nothing in his journey like unto a warlike march 
or manner ; but rather like unto the progress of a King in 
full peace and assurance. 

He entered the city upon a Saturday, as he had also ob- 
tained the victory upon a Saturday; which day of the week, to 
first upon an observation, and after upon memory and fancy, 
he accounted and chose as a day prosperous unto him. 

The mayor and companies of the city received him at 
Shoreditch ; whence with great and honourable attendance, 
and troops of noblemen, and persons of quality, he entered 15 
the city; himself not being on horseback, or in any open 
chair or throne, but in a close chariot, as one that having 
been sometimes an enemy to the whole state, and a pro- 
scribed person, chose rather to keep state, and strike a 
reverence into the people, than to fawn upon them. 20 

He went first into St. Paul's church, where, not meaning 
that the people should forget too soon that he came in by 
battle, he made offertory of his standards, and had orisons 
and Te Deiim again sung; and went to his lodging prepared 
in the bishop of London's palace, where he stayed for a 25 
time. 

During his abode there, he assembled his council and 
other principal persons, in presence of whom he did renew 
again his promise to marry with the lady Elizabeth. This 
he did the rather, because having at his coming out of 30 
Britain given artificially, for serving his own turn, some 
hopes, in case he obtained the kingdom, to marry Anne, in- 
heritress to the duchy of Britain, whom Charles the eighth 



12 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1485 

of France soon after married, it bred some doubt and sus- 
picion amongst divers that he was not sincere, or at least 
not fixed in going on with the match of England so much 
desired: which conceit also, though it were but talk and 
5 discourse, did much afflict the poor lady Elizabeth herself. 
But howsoever he both truly intended it, and desired also 
it should be so believed, the better to extinguish envy and 
contradiction to his other purposes, yet was he resolved in 
himself not to proceed to the consummation thereof, till 

I o his coronation and a parliament were past. The one, lest a 
joint coronation of himself and his Queen might give any 
countenance of participation of title ; the other, lest in the 
entailing of the crown to himself, which he hoped to obtain 
by parliament, the votes of the parliament might any ways 

1 5 reflect upon her. 

About this time in autumn, towards the end of Septem- 
ber, there began and reigned in the city, and other parts of 
the kingdom, a disease then new: which by the accidents 
and manner thereof they called the sweating sickness. This 

2o disease had a swift course, both in the sick body, and in the 
time and period of the lasting thereof; for they that were 
taken with it, upon four and twenty hours escaping, were 
thought almost assured. And as to the time of the malice 
and reign of the disease, ere it ceased ; it began about the 

25 one and twentieth of September, and cleared up before the 
end of October, insomuch as it was no hindrance to the 
King's coronation, which was the last of October; nor, which 
was more, to the holding of the parliament, which began 
but seven days after. It was a pestilent fever, but, as it 

30 seemeth, not seated in the veins or humours, for there fol- 
lowed no carbuncle, no purple or livid spots, or the like, 
the mass of the body being not tainted ; only a malign va- 
pour flew to the heart, and seized the vital spirits; which 



1485] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 13 

stirred nature to strive to send it forth by an extreme sweat. 
And it appeared by experience, that this disease was rather 
a surprise of nature than obstinate to remedies, if it were 
in time looked unto. For if the patient were kept in an 
equal temper, both for clothes, fire, and drink, moderately 5 
warm, with temperate cordials, whereby nature's work were 
neither irritated by heat, nor turned back by cold, he com- 
monly recovered. But infinite persons died suddenly of it, 
before the manner of the cure and attendance was known. 
It was conceived not to be an epidemic disease, but to i© 
proceed from a malignity in the constitution of the air, 
gathered by the predispositions of seasons ; and the speedy 
cessation declared as much. 

On Simon and Jude's eve, the King dined with Thomas " 
Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal; and from j^ 
Lambeth went by land over the bridge to the Tower, where 
the morrow after he made twelve knights bannerets. But 
for creations he dispensed them with a sparing hand. For 
notwithstanding a field so lately fought, and a coronation so 
near at hand, he only created three: Jasper, earl of Pem- 20 
broke, the King's uncle, was created duke of Bedford \ 
Thomas, the lord Stanley, the King's father-in-law, earl of 
Derby ; and Edward Courtney, earl of Devon ; though the 
King had then nevertheless a purpose in himself to make 
more in time of Parliament \ bearing a wise and decent 25 
respect to distribute his creations, some to honour his coro- 
nation, and some his parliament. 

The coronation followed two days after, upon the thirtieth 
day of October, in the year of our Lord 1485 ; at which time 
Innocent the eighth was Pope of Rome; Frederick the third 30 
Emperor of Almain ; and Maximilian his son newly chosen 
King of the Romans; Charles the eighth King of France; 
Ferdinando and Isabella Kings of Spain ; and James the third, 



14 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1485 

King of Scotland: with all which Kings and States the King 
was at that time in good peace and amity. At which day also, 
as if the crown upon his head had put perils into his tlioughts, 
he did institute, for the better security of his person, a band 
5 of fifty archers, under a captain, to attend him, by the name 
of yeomen of his guard : and yet, that it might be thought 
to be rather a matter of dignity, after the imitation of what 
he had known abroad, than any matter of diffidence appro- 
priate to his own case, he made it to be understood for an 

lo ordinance not temporary, but to hold in succession for 
ever after. 

The seventh of November the King held his parliament 
at Westminster, which he had summoned immediately after 
his coming to London. His ends in calling a parliament, 

15 and that so speedily, were chiefly three ; first, to procure the 
crown to be entailed upon himself Next, to have the 
attainders of all of his party, which were in no small 
number, reversed, and all acts of hostility by them done in 
his quarrel remitted and discharged ; and on the other side, 

20 to attaint by parliament the heads and principals of his 
enemies. The third, to calm and quiet the fears of the rest 
of that party by a general pardon ; not being ignorant in 
how great danger a King stands from his subjects, when most 
of his subjects are conscious in themselves that they stand in 

25 his danger. Unto these three special motives of a parliament 
was added, that he, as a prudent and moderate Prince, made 
this judgment, that it was fit for him to hasten to let his 
people see, that he meant to govern by law, howsoever he 
came in by the sword ; and fit also to reclaim them to know 

30 him for their King, whom they had so lately talked of as an 
enemy or banished man. For that which concerned the 
entailing of the crown, more than that he was true to his 
own will, that he would not endure any mention of the lady 



1485] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 15 

Elizabeth, no not in the nature of special entail, he carried 
it otherwise with great wisdom and measure : for he did not 
press to have the act penned by way of declaration or recog- 
nition of right; as, on the other side, he avoided to have it 
by new law or ordinance, but chose rather a kind of middle 5 
way, by way of establishment, and that under covert and 
indifferent words; " that the inheritance of the crown should 
rest, remain, and abide in the King," etc., which words might 
equally be applied, that the crown should continue to him ; 
but whether as having former right to it, which was doubt- 10 
ful, or having it then in fact and possession, which no man 
denied, was left fair to interpretation either way. And again, 
for the limitation of the entail, he did not press it to go 
farther than to himself and to the heirs of his body, not 
speaking of his right heirs ; but leaving that to the law to 1 5 
decide: so as the entail might seem rather a personal favour 
to him and his children, than a total disinherison to the 
house of York. And in this form was the law drawn and 
passed. Which statute he procured to be confirmed by the 
Pope's bull the year following, with mention- nevertheless, by 20 
way of recital, of his other titles, both of descent and con- 
quest. So as now the wreath of three, was made a wreath 
of five; for to the threfe first titles of the two houses, or 
lines, and conquest, were added two more, the authorities 
parliamentary and papal. 25 

The King likewise, in the reversal of the attainders of his 
partakers, and discharging them of all offences incident to 
his service and succour, had his will; and acts did pass 
accordingly. In the passage whereof, exception was taken 
to divers persons in the house of commons, for that they 30 
were attainted, and thereby not legal, nor habilitate to serve 
in parliament, being disabled in the highest degree; and that 
it should be a great incongruity to have them to make laws, 



i6 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1485 

who themselves were not inlawed. The truth was, that 
divers of those, which had in the time of King Richard 
been strongest, and most declared for the King's party, were 
returned knights and burgesses for the parliament; whether 
5 by care or recommendation from the state, or the voluntary 
inclination of the people ; many of which had been by 
Richard the third attainted by outlawries, or otherwise. The 
King was somewhat troubled with this; for though it had a 
grave and specious shew, yet it reflected upon his party. 

lo But wisely not shewing himself at all moved therewith, he 
would not understand it but as a case in law, and wished 
the judges to be advised thereupon ; who for that purpose 
were forthwith assembled in the exchequer-chamber, which 
is the council-chamber of the judges, and upon deliberation 

15 they gave a grave and safe opinion and advice, mixed with 
law and convenience ; which was, that the knights and bur- 
gesses attainted by the course of law should forbear to come 
into the house, till a law were passed for the reversal of 
their attainders. 

20 It was at that time incidently moved amongst the judges 
in their consultation, what should be done for the king him- 
self, who likewise was attainted ? But it was with unanimous 
consent resolved, " That the crown takes away all defects 
and stops in blood : and that from the time the King did 

25 assume the crown, the fountain was cleared, and all attain- 
ders and corruption of blood discharged." But nevertheless, 
for honour's sake, it was ordained by parliament, that all 
records, wherein there was any memory or mention of the 
King's attainder, should be defaced, cancelled, and taken off 

30 the file. 

But on the part of the King's enemies there were by par- 
liament attainted, the late duke of Glocester, calHng himself 
Richard the third; the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Surrey, 



1485] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 17 

viscount Lovel, the lord Ferrers, the lord Zouch, Richard 
Ratcliffe, William Catesby, and many others of degree and 
quahty. In which bills of attainders, nevertheless, there were 
contained many just and temperate clauses, savings, and pro- 
visoes, well shewing and fore-tokening the wisdom, stay, and 5 
moderation of the King's spirit of government. And for the 
pardon of the rest, that had stood against the King, the King, 
upon a second advice, thought it not fit it should pass by 
parliament, the better, being matter of grace, to impropriate 
the thanks to himself: using only the opportunity of a par- to 
1 lament time, the better to disperse it into the veins of the 
kingdom. Therefore during the parliament he published 
his royal proclamation, offering pardon and grace of restitu- 
tion to all such as had taken arms, or been participant of 
any attempts against him; so as they submitted themselves 15 
to his mercy by a day, and took the oath of allegiance and 
fidelity to him. Whereupon many came out of sanctuary, 
and many more came out of fear, no less guilty than those 
that had taken sanctuary. 

As for money or treasure, the King thought it not season- 20 
able or fit to demand any of his subjects at this parliament; 
both because he had received satisfaction from them in 
matters of so great importance, and because he could not 
remunerate them with any general pardon, being prevented 
therein by the coronation-pardon passed immediately before: 25 
but chiefly, for that it was in every man's eye, what great 
forfeitures and confiscations he had at that present to help 
himself; whereby those casualties of the crown might in 
reason spare the purses of the subject; especially in a time 
when he was in peace with all his neighbours. Some few 30 
laws passed at that parliament, almost for form sake : 
amongst which there was one, to reduce aliens, being made 
denizens, to pay strangers customs; and another, to draw to 
B. H. 2 



1 8 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1485 

himself the seizures and compositions of Itahans goods, for 
not employment, being points of profit to his coffers, whereof 
from the very beginning he was not forgetful ; and had been 
more happy at the latter end, if his early providence, which 
5 kept him from all necessity of exacting upon his people, 
could likewise have attempered his nature therein. He 
added, during parHament, to his former creations, the enno- 
blement or advancement in nobility of a few others; the 
lord Chandos of Britain, was made earl of Bath ; Sir Giles 

lo Daubeney, was made lord Daubeney; and Sir Robert 
Willoughby, lord Brook. 

The King did also with great nobleness and bounty, 
which virtues at that time had their turns in his nature, 
restore Edward Stafford, eldest son to Henry duke of Buck- 

15 ingham, attainted in the time of King Richard, not only to 
his dignities, but to his fortunes and possessions, which were 
great : to which he was moved also by a kind of gratitude, 
for that the duke was the man that moved the first stone 
against the tyranny of King Richard, and indeed made the 

20 King a bridge to the crown upon his own ruins. Thus the 
parliament broke up. 

The parliament being dissolved, the King sent forthwith 
money to redeem the marquis Dorset, and Sir John Bourchier, 
whom he had left as his pledges at Paris, for money which 

25 he had borrowed, when he made his expedition for England. 
And thereupon he took a fit occasion to send the lord 
Treasurer and master Bray, whom he used as counsellor, to 
the lord mayor of London, requiring of the city a prest of 
six thousand marks : but after many parleys, he could 

30 obtain but two thousand pounds ; which nevertheless the 
King took in good part as men use to do, that practise to 
borrow money when they have no need. About this time 
the King called unto his privy council John Morton and 



148f] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 19 

Richard Fox, the one bishop of Ely, the other bishop of 
Exeter; vigilant men, and secret, and such as kept watch 
with him almost upon all men else. They had been both 
versed in his affairs, before he came to the crown, and were 
partakers of his adverse fortune. This Morton soon after, 5 
upon the death of Bourchier, he made archbishop of Can- 
terbury. And for Fox, he made him lord Keeper of his 
privy-seal, and afterwards advanced him by degrees, from 
Exeter to Bath and Wells, thence to Durham, and last to 
Winchester. For although the King loved to employ and lo 
advance bishops, because having rich bishopricks, they 
carried their reward upon themselves; yet he did use to 
raise them by steps, that he might not lose the profit of 
the first fruits, which by that course of gradation was multi- 
plied. ^5 

At last, upon the eighteenth of January, was solemnized 
tlie so long expected and so much desired marriage, be- 
tween the King and the lady Elizabeth : which day of 
marriage was celebrated with greater triumph and demon- 
strations, especially on the people's part, of joy and gladness, 20 
than the days either of his entry or coronation ; which the 
King rather noted than liked. And it is true, that all his 
life time, while the lady Elizabeth lived with him, for she 
died before him, he shewed himself no very indulgent hus- 
band towards her, though she was beautiful, gentle, and 25 
fruitful. But his aversion towards the house of York was 
so predominant in him, as it found place not only in his 
wars and councils, but in his chamber and bed. 

Towards the middle of the spring, the King, full of con- 
fidence and assurance, as a prince that had been victorious 3° 
in battle, and had prevailed with his parliament in all that 
he desired, and had the ring of acclamations fresh in his 
ears, thought the rest of his reign should be but play, and 

2 — 2 



20 HISTORY OF KING- HENRY VII [I486 

the enjoying of a kingdom : yet, as a wise and watchful 
King, he would not neglect any thing for his safety; think- 
ing nevertheless to perform all things now, rather as an 
exercise than as a labour. So he being truly informed, that 

5 the northern parts were not only affectionate to the house 
of York, but particularly had been devoted to King Richard 
the third, thought it would be a summer well spent to visit 
those parts, and by his presence and appHcation of himself 
to reclaim and rectify those humours. But the King, in his 

lo account o'f peace and calms, did much over-cast his for- 
tunes, which proved for many years together full of broken 
seas, tides, and tempests. For he was no sooner come to 
Lincoln, where he kept his Easter, but he received news, 
that the lord Lovel, Humphrey Stafford, and Thomas Staf- 

1 5 ford, who had formerly taken sanctuary at Colchester, were 
departed out of sanctuary, but to what place no man could 
tell : which advertisement the King despised, and continued 
his journey to York. At York there came fresh and more 
certain advertisement, that the lord I^ovel was at hand with 

20 a great power of men, and that the Staffords were in arms 
in Worcestershire, and had made their approaches to the 
city of Worcester, to assail it. The King, as a prince of 
great and profound judgment, was not much moved with it ; 
for that he thought it was but a rag or remnant of Bosworth- 

25 field, and had nothing in it of the main party of the house 
of York. But he was more doubtful of the raising of forces 
to resist the rebels, than of the resistance itself; for that he 
was in a core of people, whose affections he suspected. But 
the action enduring no delay, he did speedily levy and send 

30 against the lord Lovel, to the number of three thousand 
men, ill armed, but well assured, being taken some few out 
of his own train, and the rest out of the tenants and follow- 
ers of such as were safe to be trusted, under the conduct of 



1486] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 21 

the duke of Bedford. And as his manner was to send his 
pardons rather before the sword than after, he gave com- 
mission to the duke to proclaim pardon to all that would 
come in : which the duke , upon his approach to the lord 
Lovel's camp, did perform. And it fell out as the King 5 
expected; the heralds were the great ordnance. For the 
lord Lovel, upon proclamation of pardon, mistrusting his 
men, fled into Lancashire, and lurking for a time with 
Sir Thomas Broughton, after sailed over into Flanders to 
the lady Margaret. And his men, forsaken of their captain, i o 
did presently submit themselves to the duke. The Staffords 
likewise, and their forces, hearing what had happened to 
the lord Lovel, in whose success their chief trust was, de- 
spaired and dispersed. The two brothers taking sanctuary 
at Colnham, a village near Abingdon ; wliich place, upon 1 5 
view of their privilege in the King's bench, being judged 
no sufficient sanctuary for traitors, Humphrey was executed 
at Tyburn ; and Thomas, as being led by his elder brother, 
was pardoned. So this rebellion proved but a blast, and 
the King having by this journey purged a little the dregs 20 
and leaven of the northern people, that were before in no 
good affection towards him, returned to London. 

In September following, the Queen was delivered of her 
first son, whom the King, in honour of the British race, of 
which himself was, named Arthur, according to the name 25 
of that ancient worthy King of the Britains, in whose acts 
there is truth enough to make him famous, besides that 
which is fabulous. The child was strong and able, though 
he was born in the eighth month, which the physicians do 
prejudge. 30 

There followed this year, being the second of the King's 
reign, a strange accident of state, whereof the relations 



2 2 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI L [I486 

which we have are so naked, as they leave it scarce cre- 
dible; not for the nature of it, for it hath fallen out often, 
but for the manner and circumstance of it, especially in the 
beginnings. Therefore we shall make our judgment upon 
5 the things themselves, as they give light one to another, 
and, as we can, dig truth out of the mine. The King was 
green in his estate; and, contrary to his own opinion and 
desert both, was not without much hatred throughout the 
realm. The root of all was the discountenancing of the 

lo house of York, which the general body of the realm still 
affected. This did alienate the hearts of the subjects from 
him daily more and more, especially when they saw, that 
after his marriage, and after a son born, the King did never- 
theless not so much as proceed to the coronation of the 

15 Queen, not vouchsafing her the honour of a matrimonial 
crown; for the coronation of her was not till almost two 
years after, when danger had taught him what to do. But 
much more v/hen it was spread abroad, whether by error, or 
the cunning of malcontents, that the King had a purpose 

20 to put to death Edward Plantagenet closely in the Tower: 
whose case was so nearly paralleled with that of Edward the 
fourth's children, in respect of the blood, like age, and the 
very place of the Tower, as it did refresh and reflect upon 
the King a most odious resemblance, as if he would be 

25 another King Richard. And all this time it was still 
whispered every where, that at least one of the children of 
Edward the fourth was living : which bruit was cunningly 
fomented by such as desired innovation. Neither was the 
King's nature and customs greatly fit to disperse these 

30 mists; but contrariwise, he had a fashion rather to create 
doubts than assurance. Thus was fuel prepared for the 
spark : the spark, that afterwards kindled such a fire and 
combustion, was at the first contemptible. 



1486] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 23 

There was a subtle priest called Richard Simon", that 
lived in Oxford, and had to his pupil a baker's son, named 
Lambert Simnell, of the age of some fifteen years, a comely 
youth, and well favoured, not without some extraordinary 
dignity, and grace of aspect. It came into this priest's 5 
fimcy, hearing what men talked, and in hope to raise him- 
self to some great bishopric, to cause this lad to counterfeit 
and personate the second son of Edward the fourth, sup- 
posed to be murdered; and afterward, for he changed his 
intention in the manage, the lord Edward Plantagenet, then 10 
prisoner in the Tower, and accordingly to frame him and 
instruct him in the part he was to play. This is that which, 
as was touched before, seemeth scarcely credible; not that 
a false person should be assumed to gain a kingdom, for it 
hath been seen in ancient and late times ; nor that it should 1 5 
come into the mind of such an abject fellow, to enterprise 
so great a matter; for high conceits do sometimes come 
streaming into the imaginations of base persons; especially 
when they are drunk with news, and talk of the people. 
But here is that which hath no appearance : That this priest, 20 
being utterly unacquainted with the true person, according 
to whose pattern he should shape his counterfeit, should 
think it possible for him to instruct his player, either in ges- 
ture and fashions, or in recounting past matters of his life 
and education ; or in fit answers to questions, or the like, 25 
any ways to come near the resemblance of him whom he 
was to represent. For this lad was not to personate one, that 
had been long before taken out of his cradle, or conveyed 
away in his infancy, known to few ; but a youth, that till 

^ The priest's name was William Simonds, and the youth was, the 

son of an organ-maker in Oxford, as the priest declared 

before the whole convocation of the clergy at Lambeth, Feb. 17, i486. 
Vide Reg. Morton, f. 34. MS. Sancroft. 



2 4 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI L [1486 

the age almost of ten years had been brought up in a court 
where infinite eyes had been upon him. For King Edward, 
touched with remorse of his brother the duke of Clarence's 
death, would not indeed restore his son, of whom we speak, 
5 to be duke of Clarence, but yet created him earl of War- 
wick, reviving his honour on the mother's side; and used 
him honourably during his time, though Richard the third 
afterwards confined him. So that it cannot be, but that 
some great person that knew particularly and familiarly 

lo Edward Plantagenet, had a hand in the business, from whom 
the priest might take his aim. That which is most probable, 
out of the precedent and subsequent acts, is, that it was the 
Queen dowager, from whom this action had the principal 
source and motion. For certain it is, she was a busy nego- 

15 dating woman, and in her withdrawing-chamber had the 
fortunate conspiracy for the King against King Richard the 
third been hatched; which the King knew, and remembered 
perhaps but too well ; and was at this time extremely dis- 
content with the King, thinking her daughter, as the King 

20 handled the matter, not advanced but depressed : and none 
could hold the book so well to prompt and instruct this 
stage -play, as she could. Nevertheless it was not her mean- 
ing, nor no more was it the meaning of any of the better 
and sager sort that favoured this enterprise, and knew the 

25 secret, that this disguised idol should possess the crown; 
but at his peril to make way to the overthrow of the King ; 
and that done, they had their several hopes and ways. That 
which doth chiefly fortify this conjecture is, that as soon as 
the matter brake forth in any strength, it was one of the 

30 King's first acts to cloister the Queen dowager in the nun- 
nery of Bermondsey, and to take away all her lands and 
estate ; and this by a close council, without any legal pro- 
ceeding, upon far fetched pretences that she had delivered 



1486] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 25 

her two daughters out of sanctuary to King Richard, con- 
trary to promise. Which proceeding being even at that 
time taxed for rigorous and undue, both in matter and man- 
ner, makes it very probable there was some greater matter 
against her, which the King, upon reason of pohcy and to 5 
avoid envy, would not publish. It is likewise no small 
argument that there was some secret in it, and some sup- 
pressing of examinations, for that the priest Simon himself, 
after he was taken, was never brought to execution ; no not 
so much as to public trial, as many clergymen were upon 10 
less treasons, but was only shut up close in a dungeon. 
Add to this, that after the earl of Lincoln, a principal person 
of the house of York, was slain in Stoke-^eld, the King 
opened himself to some of his council, that he was sorry for 
the earl's death, because by him, he said, he might have 15 
known the bottom of his danger. 

But to return to the narration itself: Simon did first 
instruct his scholar for the part of Richard, duke of York, 
second son to King Edward the fourth; and this was at 
such time as it was voiced, that the King purposed to put 20 
to death Edward Plantagenet, prisoner in the Tower, 
whereat there was great murmur. But hearing soon after a 
general bruit that Plantagenet had escaped out of the 
Tower, and thereby finding him so much beloved amongst 
the people, and such rejoicing at his escape, the cunning 25 
priest changed his copy, and chose now Plantagenet to be 
the subject his pupil should personate, because he was more 
in the present speech and votes of the people ; and it pieced 
better, and followed more close and handsomely, upon the 
bruit of Plantagenet's escape. But yet doubting that there 30 
would be too near looking, and too much perspective into 
his disguise, if he should shew it here in England ; he 
thought good, after the manner of scenes in stage-plays and 



2 6 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. [1486 

masks, to shew it afar off; and therefore sailed with his 
scholar into Ireland, where the affection to the house of 
York was most in height. The King had been a little 
improvident in the matters of Ireland, and had not removed 

5 officers and counsellors, and put in their places, or at least 
intermingled, persons of whom he stood assured, as he 
should have done, since he knew the strong bent of that 
country towards the house of York; and that it was a 
ticklish and unsettled state, more easy to receive distempers 

I o and mutations than England was. But trusting to the repu- 
tation of his victories and successes in England, he thought 
he should have time enough to extend his cares afterwards 
to that second kingdom. 

Wherefore through this neglect, upon the coming of 

15 Simon with his pretended Plantagenet into Ireland, all 
things were prepared for revolt and sedition, almost as if 
they had been set and plotted beforehand. Simon's first 
address was to the lord Thomas Fitz-Gerard, earl of Kildare 
and deputy of Ireland ; before whose eyes he did cast such 

20 a mist, by his own insinuation, and by the carriage of his 
youth, that expressed a natural princely behaviour, as joined 
perhaps with some inwal-d vapours of ambition and affection 
in the earl's own mind, left him fully possessed, that it was 
the true Plantagenet. The earl presently communicated the 

25 matter with some of the nobles, and others there, at the first 
secretly ; but finding them of like affection to himself, he 
suffered it of purpose to vent and pass abroad ; because 
they thought it not safe to resolve, till they had a taste of 
the people's inclination. But if the great ones were in for- 

30 wardness, the people were in fury, entertaining this airy 
body or phantasm with incredible affection ; partly, out of 
their great devotion to the house of York ; partly out of a 
proud humour in the nation, to give a King to the realm of 



148^] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 27 

England. Neither did the party, in this heat of affection, 
much trouble themselves with the attainder of George duke 
of Clarence ; having newly learned by the King's example, 
that attainders do not interrupt the conveying of title to the 
crown. And as for the daughters of King Edward the 5 
fourth, they thought King Richard had said enough for 
them ; and took them to be but as of the King's party, 
because they were in his power and at his disposing. So 
that with marvellous consent and applause, this counterfeit 
Plantagenet was brought with great solemnity to the castle 10 
of Dublin, and there saluted, served, and honoured as King; 
the boy becoming it well, and doing nothing that did be- 
wray the baseness of his condition. And within a few days 
after he was proclaimed King in Dublin, by the name of 
King Edward the sixth ; there being not a sword drawn in 1 5 
King Henry his quarrel. 

The King was much moved with this unexpected acci- 
dent when it came to his ears, both because it struck upon 
that string which ever he most feared, as also because it was 
stirred in such a place, where he could not with safety 20 
transfer his own person to suppress it. For partly through 
natural valour, and partly through an universal suspicion, 
not knowing whom to trust, he was ever ready to wait 
upon all his achievements in person. The King therefore 
first called his council together at the charter-house at 25 
Shene; which council was held with great secrecy, but the 
open decrees thereof, which presently came abroad, were 
three. 

The first was, that the Queen dowager, for that she, 
contrary to her pact and agreement with those that had 30 
concluded with her concerning the marriage of her daughter 
Elizabeth with King Henry, had nevertheless delivered her 
daughters out of sanctuary into King Richard's hands, 



28 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [148« 

should be cloistered in the nunnery of Bermondsey, and 
forfeit all her lands and goods. 

The next was, that Edward Plantagenet, then close 
prisoner in the Tower, should be, in the most public and 
c notorious manner that could be devised, shewed unto the 
people : in part to discharge the King of the envy of that 
opinion and bruit, how he had been put to death privily in 
the Tower ; but chiefly to make the people see the levity 
and imposture of the proceedings of Ireland, and that their 

lo Plantagenet was indeed but a puppet or a counterfeit. 

The third was that there should be again proclaimed 
a general pardon to all that would reveal their offences, and 
submit themselves by a day. And that this pardon should 
be conceived in so ample and liberal a manner, as no high- 

15 treason, no not against the King's own person, should be 
excepted. Which though it might seem strange, yet was it 
not so to a wise King, that knew his greatest dangers were 
not from the least treasons, but from the greatest. These 
resolutions of the King and his council were immediately 

20 put in execution. And first, the Queen dowager was put 
into the monastery of Bermondsey, and all her estates seized 
into the King's hands : whereat there was much wondering; 
that a weak woman, for the yielding to the menaces and 
promises of a tyrant, after such a distance of time, wherein 

25 the King had shewed no displeasure nor alteration, but 
much more after so happy a marriage between the King and 
her daughter, blessed with issue male, should, upon a sudden 
mutability or disclosure of the King's mind, be so severely 
handled. 

30 This lady was amongst the examples of great variety of 
fortune. She had first from a distressed suitor, and desolate 
widow, been taken to the marriage bed of a bachelor King, 
the goodliest personage of his time; and even in his reign she 



148«] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 29 

had endured a strange eclipse by the King's flight, and tempo- 
rary depriving from the crown. She was also very happy, in 
that she had by him fair issue ; and continued his nuptial 
love, helping herself by some obsequious bearing and dis- 
sembling of his pleasures, to the very end. She was much 5 
affectionate to her own kindred, even unto faction ; which 
did stir great envy in the lords of the King's side, who 
counted her blood a disparagement to be mingled with the 
King's. With which lords of the King's blood joined also 
the King's favourite, the lord Hastings; who, notwithstand- 10 
ing the King's great affection to him, was thought at times, 
through her malice and spleen, not to be out of danger of 
falling. After her husband's death she was matter of tra- 
gedy, having lived to see her brother beheaded, and her two 
sons deposed from the crown, bastarded in their blood, and 15 
cruelly murdered. All this while nevertheless she enjoyed 
her liberty, state, and fortunes : but afterwards again, upon 
the rise of the wheel, when she had a King to her son-in- 
law, and was made grandmother to a grandchild of the best 
sex ; yet was she, upon dark and unknown reasons, and no 20 
less strange pretences, precipitated and banished the world 
into a nunnery ; where it was almost thought dangerous to 
visit her, or see her; and where not long after she ended 
her life : but was by the king's commandment buried with 
the King her husband at Windsor. She was foundress of 25 
Queen's college in Cambridge. For this act the King sus- 
tained great obloquy, which nevertheless, besides the reason 
of state, was somewhat sweetened to him by a great confis- 
cation. ' 

About this time also, Edward Plantagenet was upon 30 
a Sunday brought, throughout all the principal streets of 
London, to be seen of the people. And having passed the 
view of the streets, was conducted to Paul's church in 



30 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [148| 

solemn procession, where great store of people were assem- 
bled. And it was provided also in good fashion, that divers 
of the nobility, and others of quahty, especially of those 
that the King most suspected, and knew the person of 
5 Plantagenet best, had communication with the young 
gentleman by the way, and entertained him with speech 
and discourse ; which did in effect mar the pageant in Ireland 
with the subjects here, at least with so many, as out of error, 
and not out of maHce, might be misled. Nevertheless in 

lo Ireland, where it was too late to go back, it wrought little 
or no effect. But contrariwise, they turned the imposture 
upon the King ; and gave out, that the King, to defeat the 
true inheritor, and to mock the world, and blind the eyes of 
simple men, had tricked up a boy in the likeness of Edward 

15 Plantagenet, and shewed him to the people; not sparing to 
profane the ceremony of a procession, the' more to counte- 
nance the fable. 

The general pardon likewise near the same time came 
forth ; and the King therewithal omitted no diligence, in 

20 giving strait order for the keeping of the ports, that fugitives, 
malcontents, or suspected persons, might not pass over 
into Ireland and Flanders. 

Mean while the rebels in Ireland had sent privy messen- 
gers both into England and into Flanders, who in both 

25 places had wrought effects of no small importance. For in 
England they won to their party John earl of Lincoln, son 
of John de la Pole duke of Suffolk, and of Elizabeth, King 
Edward the fourth's eldest sister. This earl was a man of 
great wit and courage, and had his thoughts highly raised 

30 by hopes and expectations for a time : for Richard the third 
had a resolution, out of his hatred to both his brethren. 
King Edward and the duke of Clarence, and their lines, 
having had his hand in both their bloods, to disable their 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 31 

issues upon false and incompetent pretexts; the one of 
attainder, the other of illegitimation : and to design this 
gentleman, in case himself should die without children, for 
inheritor of the crown. Neither was this unknown to the 
King, who had secretly an eye upon him. But the King, c 
having tasted of the envy of the people for his imprisonment 
of Edward Plantagenet, was doubtful to heap up any more 
distastes of that kind, by the imprisonment of de la Pole 
also ; the rather thinking it policy to conserve him as a 
co-rival unto the other. The earl of Lincoln was induced 10 
to participate with the action of Ireland, not lightly upon 
the strength of the proceedings there, which was but a 
bubble, but upon letters from the lady Margaret of Bur- 
gundy, in whose succours and declaration for the enterprise 
there seemed to be a more soHd foundation, both for repu- 1 5 
tation and forces. Neither did the earl refrain the business, 
for that he knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an 
idol. But contrariwise, he was more glad it should be the 
false Plantagenet than the true ; because the false being 
sure to fall away of himself, and the true to be made sure of 20 
by the King, it might open and pave a fair and prepared 
way to his own title. With this resolution he sailed secretly 
into Flanders, where was a little before arrived the lord 
Lovel, leaving a correspondence here in England with Sir 
Thomas Broughton, a man of great power and dependencies 25 
in Lancashire. For before this time, when the pretended 
Plantagenet was first received in Ireland, secret messengers 
had been also sent to the lady Margaret, advertising her 
what was passed in Ireland, imploring succours in an enter- 
prise, as they said, so pious and just, and that God had so 30 
miraculously prospered the beginning thereof; and making 
offer, that all things should be guided by her will and 
direction, as the sovereign patroness and protectress of the 



32 HISTORY OF KING HENRY Vll [1487 

enterprise. Margaret was second sister to King Edward 
the fourth, and had been second wife to Charles, surnamed 
the Hardy, duke of Burgundy; by whom having no children 
of her own, she did with singular care and tenderness intend 
5 the education of Philip and Margaret, grandchildren to her 
former husband ; which won her great love and authority 
among the Dutch. This princess, having the spirit of a 
man, and malice of a woman, abounding in treasure by the 
greatness of her dower and her provident government, and 

lo being childless, and without any nearer care, made it her 
design and enterprise, to see the majesty royal of England 
once again replaced in her house ; and had set up King 
Henry as a mark, at whose overthrow all her actions should 
aim and shoot ; insomuch as all the counsels of his succeed- 

15 ing troubles came chiefly out of that quiver. And she bare 
such a mortal hatred to the house of Lancaster, and person- 
ally to the King, as she was no ways mollified by the 
conjunction of the houses in her niece's marriage, but 
rather hated her niece, as the means of the King's ascent to 

20 the crown, and assurance therein. Wherefore with great 
violence of affection she embraced this overture. And upon 
counsel taken with the earl of Lincoln, and the lord Lovel, 
and some other of the party, it was resolved, with all speed 
the two lords, assisted with a regiment of two thousand 

25 Almains, being choice and veteran bands, under the com- 
mand of Martin Swart, a valiant and experimented captain, 
should pass over into Ireland to the new King; hoping, 
that when the action should have the face of a received and 
settled regality, with such a second person as the earl of 

30 Lincoln, and the conjunction and reputation of foreign 
succours, the fame of it would embolden and prepare all 
the party of the confederates and malcontents within the 
realm of England to give them assistance when they should 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII '^'h 

come over there. And for the person of the counterfeit it 
was agreed, that if all things succeeded well he should be 
put down, and the true Plantagenet received ; wherein 
nevertheless the earl of Lincoln had his particular hopes. 
After they were come into Ireland, and that the party took 5 
courage, by seeing themselves together in a body, they 
grew very confident of success ; conceiving and discoursing 
amongst themselves, that they went in upon far better cards 
to overthrow King Henry, than King Henry had to over- 
throw King Richard: and that if there were not a sword 10 
drawn against them in Ireland, it was a sign the swords in 
England would be soon sheathed or beaten down. And 
first, for a bravery upon this accession of power, they 
crowned their new King in the cathedral church of Dublin ; 
who formerly had been but proclaimed only; and then sat 15 
in council what should farther be done. At which council, 
though it were propounded by some, that it were the best 
way to establish themselves first in Ireland, and to make 
that the seat of the war, and to draw King Henry thither in 
person, by whose absence they thought there would be great 20 
alterations and commotions in England; yet because the 
kingdom there was poor, and they should not be able to 
keep their army together, nor pay their German soldiers, 
and for that also the sway of the Irishmen, and generally of 
the men of war, which, as in such cases of popular tumults 25 
is usual, did in effect govern their leaders, was eager, and in 
affection to make their fortunes upon England ; it was con- 
cluded with all possible speed to transport their forces into 
England. The King in the mean time, who at the first 
when he heard what was done in Ireland, though it troubled 30 
him, yet thought he should be well enough able to scatter 
the Irish as a flight of birds, and rattle away this swarm of 
bees with their King; when he heard afterwards that the 

B. H. 3 



34 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

earl of Lincoln was embarked in the action, and that the 
lady Margaret was declared for it ; he apprehended the 
danger in a true degree as it was, and saw plainly that his 
kingdom must again be put to the stake, and that he must 
5 fight for it. And first he did conceive, before he understood 
of the earl of Lincoln's sailing into Ireland out of Flanders, 
that he should be assailed both upon the east parts of the 
kingdom of England, by some impression from Flanders, 
and upon the north-west out of Ireland. And therefore 

lo having ordered musters to be made in both parts, and 
having provisionally designed two generals, Jasper earl of 
Bedford, and John earl of Oxford, meaning himself also to 
go in person where the affairs should most require it, and 
nevertheless not expecting any actual invasion at that time, 

15 the winter being far on, he took his journey himself towards 
Suffolk and Norfolk, for the confirming of those parts. And 
being come to St. Edmond's-Bury, he understood that 
Thomas marquis Dorset, who had been one of the pledges 
in France, was hasting towards him, to purge himself of 

20 some accusations which had been made against him. But 
the King, though he kept an ear for him, yet was the time 
so doubtful, that he sent the earl of Oxford to meet him, 
and forthwith to carry him to the Tower; with a fair 
message nevertheless, that he should bear that disgrace with 

25 patience, for that the King meant not his hurt, but only to 
preserve him from doing hurt, either to the King's service, 
or to himself; and that the King should always be able, 
when he had cleared himself, to make him reparation. 

From St. Edmond's-Bury he went to Norwich, where he 

30 kept his Christmas. And from thence he went, in a manner 
of pilgrimage, to Walsingham, where he visited our lady's 
church, famous for miracles, and made his prayers and vows 
for help and deliverance. And from thence he returned by 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 35 

Cambridge to London. Not long after the rebels, with their 
King, under the leading of the earl of Lincoln, the earl of 
Kildare, the lord Lovel, and colonel Swart, landed at Foul- 
drey in Lancashire ; whither there repaired to them Sir 
Thomas Broughton, with some small company of English. 5 
The King by that time, knowing now the storm would not 
divide, but fall in one place, had levied forces in good num- 
ber ; and in person, taking with him his two designed gene- 
rals, the duke of Bedford, and the earl of Oxford, was come 
on his way towards them as far as Coventry, whence he sent 10 
forth a troop of light horsemen for discovery, and to inter- 
cept some stragglers of the enemies, by whom he might the 
better understand the particulars of their progress and pur- 
poses, which was accordingly done ; though the King other- 
wise was not without intelligence from espials in the camp. 15 

The rebels took their way toward York, without spoiling 
the country or any act of hostility, the better to put them- 
selves into favour of the people, and to personate their 
King : who, no doubt, out of a princely feeling, was sparing 
and compassionate towards his subjects : but their snow-ball 20 
did not gather as it went. For the people came not in to 
them ; neither did any rise or declare themselves in other 
parts of the kingdom for them ; which was caused partly by 
the good taste that the King had given his people of his 
government, joined with the reputation of his felicity; and 25 
partly for that it was an odious thing to the people of Eng- 
land, to have a King brought in to them upon the shoulders 
of Irish and Dutch, of which their army was in substance 
compounded. Neither was it a thing done with any great 
judgment on the party of the rebels, for them to take their 30 
way towards York : considering that . howsoever those parts 
had formerly been a nursery of their friends ; yet it was 
there, where the lord Lovel had so lately disbanded, and 

3—2 



36 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

where the King's presence had a little before qualified dis- 
contents. The earl of Lincoln, deceived of his hopes of the 
country's concourse unto him, in which case he would have 
temporised, and seeing the business past retract, resolved to 
5 make on where the King was, and to give him battle ; and 
thereupon marched towards Newark, thinking to have sur- 
prised the town. But the King was somewhat before this 
time come to Nottingham, where he called a council of wa.r, 
at which was consulted whether it were best to protract 

lo time, or speedily to set upon the rebels. In which council 
the King himself, whose continual vigilancy did suck in 
sometimes causeless suspicions, which few else knew, in- 
clined to the accelerating a battle : but this was presently 
put out of doubt, by the great aids that came in to him in 

15 the instant of this consultation, partly upon missives, and 
partly voluntaries, from many parts of the kingdom. 

The principal persons that came then to the King's aid, 
were the earl of Shrewsbury, and the lord Strange of the 
nobility; and of knights and gentlemen, to the number of 

20 at least threescore and ten persons, with their companies, 
making in the whole, at the least, six thousand fighting men, 
besides the forces that were with the King before. Where- 
upon the King, finding his army so bravely reinforced, and 
a great alacrity in all his men to fight, was confirmed in his 

25 former resolution, and marched speedily, so as he put him- 
self between the enemy's camp and Newark ; being loth 
their army should get the commodity of that town. The 
earl, nothing dismayed, came forwards that day unto a little 
village called Stoke, and there encamped that night, upon 

30 the brow or hanging of a hill. The King the next day pre- 
sented him battle upon the plain, the fields there being open 
and champaign. The earl courageously came down and 
joined battle with him. Concerning which battle the rela- 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 37 

tions that are left unto us are so naked and negligent, 
though it be an action of so recent memory, as they rather 
declare the success of the day, than the manner of the fight. 
They say, that the King divided his army into three battles ; 
whereof the van-guard, only, well strengthened with wings, 5 
came to fight : That the fight was fierce and obstinate, and 
lasted three hours, before the victory inclined either way; 
save that judgment might be made by that the King's van- 
guard of itself maintained fight against the whole power of 
the enemies, the other two battles remaining out of action, 10 
what the success was like to be in the end : That Martin 
Swart with his Germans performed bravely, and so did those 
few English that were on that side ; neither did the Irish fail 
in courage or fierceness ; but being almost naked men, only 
armed with darts and skeins, it was rather an execution than 1 5 
a fight upon them ; insomuch as the furious slaughter of 
them was a great discouragement and appalement to the 
rest : That there died upon the place all the chieftains; that 
is, the earl of Lincoln, the earl of Kildare, Francis lord 
Lovel, Martin Swart, and Sir Thomas Broughton; all making 20 
good the fight, without any ground given. Only of the lord 
Lovel there went a report that he fled, and swam over Trent 
on horseback, but could not recover the farther side, by 
reason of the steepness of the bank, and so was drowned in 
the river. But another report leaves him not there, but that 25 
he lived long after in a cave or vault. The number that was 
slain in the field, was of the enemy's part four thousand at 
the least ; and of the King's part, one half of his van-guard, 
besides many hurt, but none of name. There were taken 
prisoners, amongst others, the counterfeit Plantagenet, now 30 
Lambert Simnell again, and the crafty priest his tutor. For 
Lambert, the King would not take his life, both out of mag- 
nanimity, taking him but as an image of wax, that others 



38 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1487 

had tempered and moulded ; and likewise out of wisdom, 
thinking tliat if he suffered death, he would be forgotten too 
sooli ; but being kept alive, he would be a continual spec- 
tacle, and a kind of remedy against the like enchantments of 
5 people in time to come. For which cause he was taken 
into service in his court to a base office in his kitchen; so 
that, in a kind of mattacma of human fortune, he turned a 
broach, that had worn a crown ; \yhereas fortune commonly 
doth not bring in a comedy or farce after a tragedy. And 

ID afterwards he was preferred to be one of the King's fal- 
coners. As to the priest, he was committed close prisoner, 
and heard of no more ; the King loving to seal up his own 
dangers. 

After the battle the King went to Lincoln, where he 

15 caused supplications and thanksgivings to be made for his 
deliverance and victory. And that his devotions might go 
round in circle, he sent his banner to be offered to our lady 
of Walsingham, where before he made his vows. And thus 
delivered of this so strange an engine, and new invention of 

20 fortune, he returned to his former confidence of mind ; 
thinking now, that all his misfortunes had come at once. 
But it fell out unto him according to the speech of the com- 
mon people in the beginning of his reign, that said, It was a 
token he should reign in labour, because his reign began 

25 with a sickness of sweat. But howsoever the King thought 
himself now in a haven, yet such was his wisdom, as his 
confidence did seldom darken his foresight, especially in 
things near hand. And therefore, awakened by so fresh 
and unexpected dangers, he entered into due consideration, 

30 as well how to weed out "the partakers of the former rebel- 
lion, as to kill the seeds of the like in time to come : and 
withal to take away all shelters and harbours for discontented 
persons, where they might hatch and foster rebellions, which 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY III. 39 

afterwards might gather strength and motion. And first, he 
did yet again make a progress from Lincohi to the northern 
parts, though it were indeed rather an itinerary circuit of 
justice than a progress. For all along as he went, with 
much severity and strict inquisition, partly by martial law, 5 
and partly by commission, were punished the adherents and 
aiders of the late rebels. Not all by death, for the field had 
drawn much blood, but by fines and ransoms, which spared 
life, and raised treasure. Amongst other crimes of this na- 
ture, there was diligent inquiry made of such as had raised 10 
and dispersed a bruit and rumour, a little before the field 
fought, "that the rebels had the day; and that the King's 
army was overthrown, and the King fled." Whereby it was 
supposed that many succours, which otherwise would have 
come unto the King, were cunningly put off and kept back. 15 
Which charge and accusation, though it had some ground, 
yet it was industriously embraced and put on by divers, who 
having been in themselves not the best affected to the 
King's part, nor forward to come to his aid, were glad to 
apprehend this colour to cover their neglect and coldness, 20 
under the pretence of such discouragements. Which cun- 
ning nevertheless the King would not understand, though 
he lodged it, and noted it in some particulars, as his manner 
was. 

But for the extirpating of the roots and causes of the 25 
like commotions in time to come, the King began to find 
where his shoe did wring him, and that it was his depressing 
of the house of York that did rankle and fester the affections 
of his people. And therefore being now too wise to disdain 
perils any longer, and willing to give some contentment in 30 
that kind, at least in ceremony, he resolved at last to pro- 
ceed to the coronation of his Queen. And therefore at his 
coming to London, where he entered in state, and in a kind 



40 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

of triumph, and celebrated his victory with two days of de- 
votion, for the first day he repaired to Paul's and had the 
hymn of Te Deiim sung, and the morrow after he went in 
procession, and heard the sermon at the cross, the Queen 
5 was with great solemnity crowned at Westminster, the five 
and twentieth of November, in the third year of his reign, 
which was about two years after the marriage : like an old 
christening, that had stayed long for godfathers. Which 
strange and unusual distance of time made it subject to 

lo every man's note, that it was an act against his stomach, 
and put upon him by necessity and reason of state. Soon 
after, to shew that it was now fair weather again, and that 
the imprisonment of Thomas marquis Dorset was rather 
upon suspicion of the time, than of the man, he, the said 

15 marquis, was set at liberty, without examination or other 
circumstance. At that time also the King sent an ambas- 
sador unto Pope Innocent, signifying unto him this his 
marriage ; and that now, like another .^neas, he had passed 
through the floods of his former troubles and travels, and 

20 was arrived unto a safe haven : and thanking his Holiness 
that he had honoured the celebration of his marriage with 
the presence of his ambassador ; and offering both his per- 
son and the forces of his kingdom, upon all occasions, to 
do him service. 

25 The ambassador making his oration to the Pope, in the 
presence of the cardinals, did so magnify the King and 
Queen, as was enough to glut the hearers. But then he did 
again so extol and deify the Pope, as made all that he had 
said in praise of his master and mistress seem temperate 

30 and passable. But he was very honourably entertained, and 
extremely much made on by the Pope : who knowing him- 
self to be lazy and unprofitable to the Christian world, was 
wonderfully glad to hear that there were such echoes of him 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 41 

sounding in remote parts. He obtained also of the Pope a 
very just and honourable bull, qualifying the privileges of 
sanctuary, wherewith the King had been extremely galled, 
in three points. 

The first, that if any sanctuary man did by night, or 5 
otherwise, get out of sanctuary privily, and commit mischief 
and trespass, and then come in again, he should lose the 
benefit of sanctuary for ever after. The second, that how- 
soever the person of the sanctuary man was protected from 
his creditors, yet his goods out of sanctuary should not. 10 
The third, that if any took sanctuary for case of treason, 
the King might appoint him keepers to look to him in 
sanctuary. 

The King also, for the better securing of his estate 
against mutinous and malcontented subjects, whereof he 15 
saw the realm was full, who might have their refuge into 
Scotland, which was not under key, as the ports were ; for 
that cause rather than for any doubt of hostility from those 
parts, before his coming to London, when he was at New- 
castle, had sent a solemn ambassage unto James the third 20 
King of Scotland, to treat and conclude a peace with him. 
The ambassadors were, Richard Fox, bishop of Exeter, and 
Sir Richard Edgcombe, comptroller of the King's house, 
who were honourably received and entertained there. But 
the King of Scotland labouring of the same disease that 25 
King Henry did, though more mortal, as afterwards ap- 
peared, that is, discontented subjects, apt to rise and raise 
tumult, although in his own affection he did much desire to 
make a peace with the King; yet finding his nobles averse, 
and not daring to displease them, concluded only a truce 30 
for seven years ; giving nevertheless promise in private, that 
it should be renewed from time to time during the two 
Kings' lives. 



42 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

Hitherto the King had been exercised in settling his 
affairs at home. But about tliis time brake forth an occasion 
that drew him to look abroad, and to hearken to foreign 
business. Charles the eighth the French King, by the virtue 
5 and good fortune of his two immediate predecessors, Charles 
the seventh his grandfather and Lewis the eleventh his 
father, received the kingdom of France in more flourishing 
and spread estate than it had been of many years before \ 
being redintegrate in those principal members, which an- 

lo ciently had been portions of the crown of France, and were 
afterward dissevered, so as they remained only in homage, 
and not in sovereignty, being governed by absolute Princes 
of their own, Anjou, Normandy, Provence, and Burgundy. 
There remained only Britain to be re-united, and so the 

1 5 monarchy of France to be reduced to the ancient terms and 
bounds. 

King Charles was not a little inflamed with an ambition 
to re -purchase and re-annex that duchy : which his ambition 
was a wise and well-weighed ambition ; not like unto the 

20 ambitions of his succeeding enterprises of Italy. For at 
that time, being newly come to the crown, he was somewhat 
guided by his father's counsels, counsels not counsellors, 
for his father was his own council, and had few able men 
about him. And that King, he knew well, had ever dis- 

25 tasted the designs of Italy, and in particular had an eye 
upon Britain. There were many circumstances that did 
feed the ambition of Charles with pregnant and apparent 
hopes of success : the duke of Britain old, and entered 
into a lethargy, and served with mercenary counsellors, 

30 father of two only daughters, the one sickly and not like to 
continue : King Charles himself in the flower of his age, and 
the subjects of France at that time well trained for war, both 
for leaders and soldiers; men of service being not yet worn 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIJ. 43 

out since the wars of Lewis against Burgundy. He found 
himself also in ])eace with all his neighbour Princes. As 
for those that might oppose to his enterprise, Maximilian 
King of the Romans, his rival in the same desires (as well 
for the duchy, as the daughter) feeble in means; and King 5 
Henry of England as well somewhat obnoxious to him for 
his favours and benefits, as busied in his particular troubles 
at home. There was also a fair and specious occasion 
offered him to hide his ambition, and to justify his warring 
upon Britain; for that the duke had received and succoured 10 
Lewis duke of Orleans, and other of the French nobility, 
which had taken arms against their King. Wherefore King 
Charles, being resolved upon that war, knew well he could 
not receive any opposition so potent, as if King Henry 
should, either upon policy of state, in preventing the grow- 15 
ing greatness of France, or upon gratitude unto the duke of 
Britain, for his former favours in the time of his distress, 
espouse that quarrel, and declare himself in aid of the duke. 
Therefore he no sooner heard that King Henry was settled 
by his victory, but forthwith he sent ambassadors unto him 20 
to pray his assistance, or at least that he would stand 
neutral. Which ambassadors found the King at Leicester, 
and delivered their ambassage to this effect : They first im- 
parted unto the King the success that their master had had 
a little before against Maximilian, in recovery of certain 25 
towns from him : which was done in a kind of privacy, and 
inwardness towards the King; as if the French King did not 
esteem him for an outward or formal confederate, but as 
one that had part in his affections and fortunes, and with 
wliom he took pleasure to communicate his business. After 3° 
this compliment, and some gralulation for the King's vic- 
tory, they fell to their errand ; declaring to the King, That 
their master was enforced to enter into a just and necessary 



44 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

war with the duke of Britain, for that he had received and 
succoured those that were traitors and declared enemies 
unto his person and state. That they were no mean, dis- 
tressed, and calamitous persons that fled to him for refuge, 
5 but of so great quality, as it was apparent that they came 
not thither to protect their own fortune, but to infest and 
invade his; the head of them being the duke of Orleans, the 
first Prince of the blood and the second person of France. 
That therefore, rightly to understand it, it was rather on 

lo their master's part a defensive war than an offensive ; as that 
that could not be omitted or forborn, if he tendered the 
conservation of his own estate ; and that it was not the first 
blow that made the war invasive, for that no wise Prince 
would stay for, but the first provocation, or at least the first 

15 preparation; nay, that this war was rather a suppression of 
rebels, than a war with a just enemy ; where the case is, 
that his subjects, traitors, are received by the duke of Britain 
his homager. That King Henry knew well what went upon 
it in example, if neighbour Princes should patronize and 

20 comfort rebels against the law of nations and of leagues. 
Nevertheless that their master was not ignorant, that the 
King had been beholden to the duke of Britain in his ad- 
versity ; as on the other side, they knew he would not forget 
also the readiness of their King, in aiding him when 

25 the duke of Britain, or his mercenary counsellors, failed 

' him, and would have betrayed him ; and that there was a 

great difference between the courtesies received from their 

master, and the duke of Britain : for that the duke's might 

have ends of utility and bargain ; whereas their master's 

30 could not have proceeded but out of entire affection ; for 
that, if it had been measured by a politic line, it had been 
better for his affairs that a tyrant should have reigned in 
England, troubled and hated, than such a Prince, whose 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 45 

virtues could not fail to make him great and potent, whenso- 
ever he was come to be master of his affairs. But howsoever 
it stood for the point of obligation which the King might 
owe to the duke of Britain, yet their master was well 
assured, it would not divert King Henry of England from 5 
doing that that was just, nor ever embark him in so ill- 
grounded a quarrel. Therefore, since this war, which their 
master was now to make, was but to deliver himself from 
imminent dangers, their King hoped the Kin^ would shew 
the like affection to the conservation of their master's estate, 10 
as their master had, when time was, shewed to the King's 
acquisition of his kingdom. At the least, that according to 
the inclination which the King had ever possessed of peace, 
he would look on, and stand neutral; for that their master 
could not with reason press him to undertake part in the 15 
war, being so newly settled and recovered from intestine 
seditions. But touching the mystery of re-annexing of the 
duchy of Britain to the crown of France, either by war, or 
by marriage \vith the daughter of Britain, the ambassadors 
bare aloof from it as from a rock, knowing that it made most 20 
against them. And therefore by all means declined any 
mention thereof, but contrariwise interlaced, in their con- 
ference with the King, the assured purpose of their master 
to match with the daughter of Maximilian ; and entertained 
the King also with some wandering discourses of their 25 
King's purposes, to recover by arms his right to the kingdom 
of Naples, by an expedition in person ; all to remove the 
King from all jealousy of any design in these hither parts 
upon Britain, otherwise than for quenching of the fire, which 
he feared might be kindled in his own estate. 30 

The King, after advice taken with his council, made 
answer to the ambassadors : and first returned their compli- 
ment, shewing he was right glad of the French King's 



46 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

reception of those towns from Maximilian. Then he fami- 
h'arly related some particular passages of his own adventures 
and victory passed. As to the business of Britain, the King 
answered in few words; that the French King, and the duke 
5 of Britain, were the two persons to whom he was most obliged 
of all men ; and that he should think himself very unhappy, 
if things should go so between them, as he should not be 
able to acquit himself in gratitude towards them both ; and 
that there was no means for him as a Christian King, and a 

ro common friend to them, to satisfy all obligations both to 
God and man, Init to offer himself for a mediator of an 
accord and peace between them ; by which course he 
doubted not but their King's estate, and honour both, would 
be preserved with more safety and less envy than by a war ; 

1 5 and that he would spare no cost or pains, no if it were to go 
on pilgrimage, for so good an effect ; and concluded, that in 
this great affair, which he took so much to heart, he would 
express himself more fully by an ambassage, which he would 
speedily dispatch unto the French King for that purpose. 

2o And in tiiis sort the French ambassadors were dismissed : 
the King avoiding to understand any thing touching the re- 
annexing of Britain, as the ambassadors had avoided to 
mention it : save that he gave a little touch of it in the word 
envy. And so it was^ that the King was neither so shallow, 

215 nor so ill advertised, as not to perceive the intention of the 
French for the investing himself of Britain. But first, he 
was utterly unwilling, howsoever he gave out, to enter into 
war with France. A fame of a war he liked well, but not 
an achievement; for the one he thought would make him 

30 richer, and the other poorer ; and he was possessed with 
many secret fears touching his own people, which he was 
therefore loth to arm, and put weapons into their hands. 
Yet notwithstandmg, as a prudent and courageous Prince, 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 47 

he was not so averse from a war, but that he was resolved 
to choose it, rather than to have Britain carried by France, 
being so great and opulent a duchy, and situate so oppor- 
tunely to annoy England, either for coast or trade. But the 
King's hopes were, that pardy by negligence, commonly 5 
imputed to the French, especially in the court of a young 
King, and partly by the native power of Britain itself, which 
was not small ; but chiefly in respect of the great party that 
the duke of Orleans had in the kingdom of France, and 
thereby means to stir up civil troubles, to divert the French 10 
King from the enterprise of Britain. And lastly, in regard 
of the power of Maximilian, who was co-rival to the French 
King in that pursuit, the enterprise would either bow to 
a peace, or break in itself. In all which the King measured 
and valued things amiss, as afterwards appeared. He sent 15 
therefore forthwith to the French King, Christopher Urswick, 
his chaplain, a person by him much trusted and employed : 
choosing him the rather, because he was a churchman, as 
best sorting with an ambassy of pacification : and giving him 
also a commission, that if the French King consented to 2c 
treat, he should thence repair to the duke of Britain, and 
ripen the treaty on both parts. Urswick made declaration 
to the French King, much to the purpose of the King's 
answer to the French ambassadors here, instilling also ten- 
derly some overture of receiving to grace the duke of 25 
Orleans, and some taste of conditions of accord. But the 
French King on the other side proceeded not sincerely, but 
with a great deal of art and dissimulation in this treaty; 
having for his end, to gain time, and so put off the English 
succours under hope of peace, till he had got good 30 
footing in Britain by force of arms. Wherefore he answered 
the ambassador, that he would put himself into the King's 
hands, and make him arbiter of the peace ; and willingly 



48 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1487 

consented, that the ambassador should straightways pass 
into Britain, to signify this his consent, and to know the 
duke's mind likewise; well foreseeing, that the duke of 
Orleans, by whom the duke of Britain was wholly led, taking 
5 himself to be upon terms irreconcileable with him, would 
admit of no treaty of peace. Whereby he should in one, 
both generally abroad veil over his ambition, and win the 
reputation of just and moderate proceedings ; and should 
withal endear himself in the affections of the King of 

r o England, as one that had committed all to his will : nay 
and, which was yet more fine, make faith in him, that 
although he went on with the war, yet it should be but with 
his sword in his hand, to bend the stiffness of the other 
party to accept of peace ; and so the King should take no 

1 5 umbrage of his arming and prosecution ; but the treaty to 
be kept on foot to the very last instant, till he were master 
of the field. 

Which grounds being by the French King wisely laid, 
all things fell out as he expected. For when the English 

20 ambassador came to the court of Britain, the duke was then 
scarcely perfect in his memory, and all things were directed 
by the duke of Orleans, who gave audience to the chaplain 
Urswick, and upon his ambassage delivered made answer in 
somewhat high terms : That the duke of Britain having 

25 been an host, and a kind of parent or foster-father to the 
King, in his tenderness of age and weakness of fortune did 
look for at this time from King Henry, the renowned King 
of England, rather brave troops for his succours, than a vain 
treaty of peace. And if the King could forget the good 

30 offices of the duke done unto him aforetime ; yet he knew 
well, he would in his wisdom consider of the future, how 
much it imported his own safety and reputation, both in 
foreign parts, and with his own people, not to suffer Britain, 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 49 

the old confederates of England, to be swallowed up by- 
France, and so many good ports and strong towns upon the 
coast be in the command of so potent a neighbour King, 
and so ancient an enemy: And therefore humbly desired 
the King to think of this business as his own : and there- 5 
with brake off, and denied any farther conference for 
treaty. 

Urswick returned first to the French King, and related 
to him what had passed. Who finding things to sort to his 
desire, took hold of them, and said; That the ambassador 10 
might perceive now that, which he for his part partly 
imagined before. That considering in what hands the duke 
of Britain was, there would be no peace, but by a mixed 
treaty of fbrce and persuasion : and therefore he would 
go on with the one, and desired the King not to desist 15 
from the other. But for his own part, he did faithfully 
promise to be still in the King's power, to rule him in the 
matter of peace. This was accordingly represented unto the 
King by Urswick at his return, and in such a fashion, as if 
the treaty were in no sort desperate, but rather stayed for a 20 
better hour, till the hammer had wrought and beat the party 
of Britain more pliant. Whereupon there passed continu- 
ally packets and despatches between the two Kings, from 
the one out of desire, and from the other out of dissimula- 
tion, about the negotiation of peace. The French King 25 
mean while invaded Britain with great forces, and distressed 
the city of Nantz with a strait siege, and as one, who 
though he had no great judgment, yet had that, that he 
could dissemble home, the more he did urge the prosecu- 
tion of the war, the more he did, at the same time, urge the 30 
solicitation of the peace. Insomuch as during the siege of 
Nantz, after many letters and particular messages, the better 
to maintain his dissimulation, and to refresh the treaty, 

B. H. 4 



so HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

he sent Bernard D'Aiibigny, a person of good quality, to 
the King, earnestly to desire him to make an end of the 
business howsoever. 

The King was no less ready to revive and quicken the 

5 treaty; and thereupon sent three commissioners, the abbot 
of Abingdon, Sir Richard Tunstal, and chaplain Urswick 
formerly employed, to do their utmost endeavours to man- 
age the treaty roundly and strongly. 

About this time the lord Woodvile, uncle to the Queen, 

ro a valiant gentleman, and desirous of honour, sued to 
the King that he might raise some power of voluntaries 
under-hand, and without licence or passport (wherein the 
King might any ways appear) go to the aid of the duke 
of Britain. The King denied his request, or at least seemed 

15 so to do, and laid strait commandment upon him, that he 
should not stir, for that the King thought his honour would 
suffer therein, during a treaty, to better a party. Neverthe- 
less this lord, either being unruly, or out of conceit that the 
King would not inwardly dislike that, which he would not 

20 openly avow, sailed directly over into the isle of Wight, 
whereof he was governor, and levied a fair troop of four 
hundred men, and with them passed over into Britain, and 
joined himself with the duke's forces. The news whereof, 
when it came to the French court, put divers young bloods 

25 into such a fury, as the English ambassadors were not with- 
out peril to be outraged. But the French King, both to 
preserve the privilege of ambassadors, and being conscious 
to himself, that in the business of peace he himself was the 
greater dissembler of the two, forbad all injuries of fact 

30 or word against their persons or followers. And presently 
came an agent from the King, to purge himself touching 
the lord Woodvile's going over ; using for a principal argu- 
ment, to demonstrate that it was without his i)rivity, for that 



1487] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 51 

the troops were so small, as neither had the face of a suc- 
cour by authority, nor could much advance the Briton 
affairs. To which message although the French King gave 
no full credit, yet he made fair weather with the King, and 
seemed satisfied. Soon after the English ambassadors re- 5 
turned, having two of them been likewise with the duke of 
Britain, and found things in no other terms than they were 
before. Upon their return, they informed the King of the 
state of the affairs, and how far the French King was from 
any true meaning of peace; and therefore he was now to 10 
advise of some other course : neither was the King himself 
led all this while with credulity merely, as was generally 
supposed : but his error was not so much facility of belief, 
as an ill measuring of the forces of the other party. 

For, as was partly touched before, the King had cast 15 
the business thus with himself. He took it for granted in 
his own judgment, that the war of Britain, in respect of the 
strength of the towns and of the party, could not speedily 
come to a period. For he conceived, that the counsels of a 
war, that was undertaken by the French King, then childless, 20 
against an heir apparent of France, would be very faint and 
slow ; and, besides, that it was not possible, but that the 
state of France should be embroiled. with some troubles and 
alterations in favour of the duke of Orleans. He conceived 
likewise that Maximilian King of the Romans was a Prince 25 
warlike and potent; who, he made account, would give 
succours to the Britons roundly. So then judging it would 
be a work of time, he laid his plot, how he might best make 
use of that time for his own affairs. Wherein first he thought 
to make his vantage upon his parliament ; knowing that they 30 
being affectionate unto the quarrel of Britain, would give 
treasure largely : which treasure, as a noise of war might 
draw forth, so a peace succeeding might coffer up. And 

4—2 



52 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1487 

because he knew his people were hot upon the business, he 
chose rather to seem to be deceived, and lulled asleep by 
the French, than to be backward in himself; considering 
his subjects were not so fully capable of the reasons of 
5 state, which made him hold back. Wherefore to all these 
purposes he saw no other expedient, than to set and keep 
on foot a continual treaty of peace, laying it down, and 
taking it up again, as the occurrence required. Besides, he 
had in consideration the point of honour, in bearing the 

lo blessed person of a pacificator. He thought likewise to 
make use of the envy that the French King met with, by 
occasion of this war of Britain, in strengthening himself 
with new alliances ; as namely, that of Ferdinando of Spain, 
with whom he had ever a consent even in nature and cus- 

15 toms; and likewise with Maximilian, who was particularly 
interested. So that in substance he promised himself money, 
honour, friends, and peace in the end. But those things 
were too fine to be fortunate and succeed in all parts ; for 
that great affairs are commonly too rough and stubborn to be 

20 wrought upon by the finer edges or points of wit. The King 
was likewise deceived in his two main grounds. For al- 
though he had reason to conceive that the council of France 
would be wary to put the King into a war against the heir 
apparent of France; yet he did not consider that Charles 

25 was not guided by any of the principal of the blood or 
nobility, but by mean men, who would make it their master- 
piece of credit and favour, to give venturous counsels, which 
no great or wise man durst or would. And for Maximilian, 
he was thought then a greater matter than he was; his un- 

^o stable and necessitous courses being not then known. 

After consultation with the ambassadors, who brought 
him no other news than he expected before, though he 
would not seem to know it till then, he presently summoned 



1488] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 53 

his parliament, and in open parliament propounded the 
cause of Britain to both houses, by his chancellor Morton 
archbishop of Canterbury, who spake to this effect. 

" MY lords and masters, the King's grace, our sovereign 
" lord, hath commanded me to declare unto you the causes 5 
"that have moved him at this time to summon this his 
"parliament; which I shall do in few words, craving pardon 
" of his grace, and you all, if I perform it not as I would. 

" His grace doth first of all let you know, that he 
"retaineth in thankful memory the love and loyalty shewed 10 
" to him by you, at your last meeting, in establishment of 
"his royalty; freeing and discharging of his partakers, and 
"confiscation of his traitors and rebels; more than which 
" could not come from subjects to their sovereign, in one 
"action. This he taketh so well at your hands, as he hath 15 
" made it a resolution to himself, to communicate with so 
" loving and well approved subjects, in all affairs that are of 
" public nature, at home or abroad. 

"Two therefore are the causes of your present as- 
"sembling: the one, a foreign business; the other, matter of 20 
" government at home. 

" The French King, as no doubt ye have heard, maketh 
" at this present hot war upon the duke of Britain. His 
" army is now before Nantz, and holdeth it straitly besieged, 
"being the principal city, if not in ceremony and preemi- 25 
" nence, yet in strength and wealth, of that duchy. Ye may 
" guess at his hopes, by his attempting of the hardest part of 
" the war first. The cause of this war he knoweth best. 
" He allegeth the entertaining and succouring of the duke 
" of Orleans, and some other French lords, whom the King 30 
"taketh for his enemies. Others divine of other matters. 
" Both parts have, by their ambassadors, divers times prayed 
"the King's aids; the French King aids or neutrality; the 



54 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1483 

" Britons aids simply; for so their case requireth. The King, 
" as a Christian Prince, and blessed son of the holy church, 
'' hath offered himself, as a mediator, to treat of peace 
" between them. The French King yielded to treat, but 
i:; " will not stay the prosecution of the war. The Britons, 
"that desire peace most, hearken to it least; not upon con- 
"fidence or stiffness, but upon distrust of true meaning, 
" seeing the war goes on. So as the King, after as much 
" pains and care to effect a peace, as ever he took in any 

lo " business, not being able to remove the prosecution on the 
" one side, nor the distrust on the other, caused by that pro- 
'' secution, hath let fall the treaty; not repenting of it, but 
'' despairing of it now, as not likely to succeed. Therefore 
" by this narrative you now understand the state of the 

15 " question, whereupon the King prayeth your advice; which 
"is no other, but whether he shall enter into an auxiliary 
" and defensive war for the Britons against France ? 

" And the better to open your understandings in this 
"affair, the King hath commanded me to say somewhat to 

20 "you from him, of the persons that do intervene in this 
"business; and somewhat of the consequence thereof, as it 
" hath relation to this kingdom, and somewhat of the ex- 
" ample of it in general : making nevertheless no conclusion 
" or judgment of any point, until his grace hath received 

25 " your faithful and politic advices. 

" First, for the King our sovereign himself, who is the 
" principal person, you are to eye in this business ; his grace 
" doth profess, that he truly and constantly desireth to reign 
" in peace. But his grace saith, he will neither buy peace 

30 " with dishonour, nor take it up at interest of danger to 
" ensue ; but shall think it a good change, if it please God 
" to change the inward troubles and seditions, wherewith he 
"hath been hitherto exercised, into an honourable foreign 



1488] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 55 

" war. And for the other two persons in this action, the 
" French King and the duke of Britain, his grace doth 
" declare unto you, that they be the men unto whom he is 
"of aU other friends and aUies most bounden: the one 
'•having held over him his hand of protection from the 5 
"tyrant; the other having reached forth unto him his hand 
"of help for the recovery of his kingdom. So that his 
"affection toward them in his natural person, is upon equal 
" terms. And whereas you may have heard, that his grace 
"was enforced to fly out of Britain into France, for doubts 10 
" of being betrayed; his grace would not in any sort have 
" that reflect upon the duke of Britain, in defacement of his 
"former benefits; for that he is thoroughly informed, that it 
" was but the practice of some corrupt persons about him, 
" during the time of his sickness, altogether without his con- 15 
" sent or privity. 

" But howsoever these things do interest his grace in 
" this particular, yet he knoweth well, that the higher bond 
" that tieth him to procure by all means the safety and 
" welfare of his loving subjects, doth disinterest him of these 20 
"obligations of gratitude, otherwise than thus; that if his 
"grace be forced to make a war, he do it without passion 
" or ambition. 

" For the consequence of this action towards this king- 
" dom, it is much as the French King's intention is. For if 25 
" it be no more, but to range his subjects to reason, who 
" bear themselves stout upon the strength of the duke of 
" Britain, it is nothing to us. But if it be in the French 
" King's purpose, or if it should not be in purpose, yet if it 
" should follow all one, as if it were sought, that the French 30 
" King shall make a province of Britain, and join it to the 
" crown of France; then it is worthy the consideration, how 
" this may import England, as well in the increasement of 



S6 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1488 

" the greatness of France, by the addition of such a country, 
"that stretcheth his boughs into our seas, as in depriving 
" this nation, and leaving it naked of so firm and assured 
" confederates as the Britons have always been. For then 
"it will come to pass, that whereas not long since this realm 
" was mighty upon the continent, first in territory, and after 
" in alliance, in respect of Burgundy and Britain, which were 
"confederates indeed, but independent confederates; now 
"the one being already cast, partly into the greatness of 
" France, and partly into that of Austria, the other is like 
"wholly to be cast into the greatness of France; and this 
" island shall remain confined in effect within the salt waters, 
"and girt about with the coast countries of two mighty 
" monarch s. 

" For the example, it resteth likewise upon the same 
"question, upon the French King's intent. For if Britain 
" be carried and swallowed up by France, as the world 
" abroad, apt to impute and construe the actions of Princes 
"to ambition, conceive it will; then it is an example very 
" dangerous and universal, that the lesser neighbour state 
" should be devoured of the greater. For this may be the 
"case of Scotland towards England; of Portugal towards 
"Spain; of the smaller estates of Italy towards the greater; 
" and so of Germany ; or as if some of you of the commons 
" might not live and dwell safely besides some of these 
" great lords. And the bringing in of this example will be 
" chiefly laid to the King^s charge, as to him that was most 
" interested, and most able to forbid it. But then on the 
" other side, there is so fair a pretext on the French King's 
" part, and yet pretext is never wanting to power, in regard 
" the danger imminent to his own estate is such, as may 
" make this enterprise seem rather a work of necessity than 
" of ambition, as doth in reason correct the danger of the 



1488] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 57 

" example. For that the example of that which is done in 
** a man's own defence, cannot be dangerous ; because it is 
"in another's power to avoid it. But in all this business, 
" the King remits himself to your grave and mature advice, 
" whereupon he purposeth to rely." 5 

This was the effect of the lord Chancellor's Speech 
touching the cause of Britain; for the King had commanded 
him to carry it so, as to affect the parliament towards the 
business; but without engaging the King in any express 
declaration. 10 

The Chancellor went on : 

" For that which may concern the government at home, 
•'the King hath commanded me to say unto you; that he 
" thinketh there was never any King, for the small time that 
"he hath reigned, had greater and juster cause of the two 15 
" contrary passions of joy and sorrow, than his grace hath. 
" Joy, in respect of the rare and visible favours of Almighty 
" God, in girding the imperial sword upon his side, and 
"assisting the same his sword against all his enemies; and 
" likewise in blessing him with so many good and loving 20 
" servants and subjects, which have never failed to give him 
" faithful counsel, ready obedience, and courageous defence. 
" Sorrow, for that it hath not pleased God to suffer him to 
" sheathe his sword, as he greatly desired, otherwise than for 
"administration of justice, but that he hath been forced to 25 
" draw it so oft, to cut off traitorous and disloyal subjects, 
" whom, it seems, God hath left, a few amongst many good, 
'•'as the Canaanites amongst the people of Israel, to be 
"thorns in their sides, to tempt and try them; though the 
" end hath been always, God's name be blessed therefore, 30 
" that the destruction hath fallen upon their own heads. 

" Wherefore his grace saith ; That he seeth that it is not 
" the blood spilt in the field that will save the blood in the 



58 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1488 

"city; nor the marshal's sword that will set this kingdom \\\ 
"perfect peace: but that the true way is, to stop the seeds 
" of sedition and rebellion in their beginning ; and for that 
"purpose to devise, confirm, and quicken good and whole- 
5 "some laws against riots, and unlawful assemblies of people, 
. " and all combinations and confederacies of them, by live- 
"ries, tokens, and other badges of factious dependence, 
" that the peace of the land may by these ordinances, as b}' 
" bars of iron, be soundly bound in and strengthened, and 

lo "all force, both in court, country, and private houses, be 

" supprest. The care hereof, which so much concerneth 

"yourselves, and which the nature of the times doth in- 

" stantly call for, his grace commends to your wisdoms. 

"And because it is the King's desire, that this peace, 

15 "wherein he hopeth to govern and maintain you, do not 
" bear only unto you leaves, for you to sit under the shade 
" of them in safety; but also should bear you fruit of riches, 
"wealth, and plenty: therefore his grace prays you to take 
" into consideration matter of trade, as also the manufactures 

20 "of the kingdom, and to repress the bastard and barren 
"employment of moneys to usury and unlawful exchanges; 
"that they may be, as their natural use is, turned upon 
"commerce, and lawful and royal trading. And likewise 
" tliat our people be set on work in arts and handicrafts ; 

25 "that the realm may subsist more of itself; that idleness be 
" avoided, and the draining out of our treasure for foreign 
" manufactures stopped. But you are not to rest here only, 
" but to provide farther, that whatsoever merchandise shall 
"be brought in from beyond the seas, may be employed 

30 "upon the commodities of this land; whereby the king- 
" dom's stock of treasure may be sure to be kept from being 
" diminished by any over-trading of the foreigner. 

" And lastly, because the King is well assured, that you 



1488] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 59 

•' would not have liim poor, that wishes you rich ; he doubt- 
" eth not but that you will have care, as well to maintain his 
" revenues of customs and all other natures, as also to sup- 
" ply him with your loving aids, if the case shall so require. 
'' The rather, for that you know the King is a good husband, 5 
"and but a steward in effect for the public; and that what 
"comes from you, is but as moisture drawn from the earth, 
" which gathers into a cloud, and falls back upon the earth 
" again. And you know well how the kingdoms about you 
" grow more and more in greatness, and the times are stir- i o 
" ring ; and therefore not fit to find the King with an empty 
" purse. More 1 have not to say to you ; and wish, that 
" what hath been said, had been better expressed : but that 
" your wisdoms and good affections will supply. God bless 
"your doings." 15 

It was no hard matter to dispose and affect the parlia- 
ment in this business ; as well in respect of the emulation 
between the nations, and the envy at the late growth of the 
French monarchy; as in regard of the danger to suffer the 
French to make their approaches upon England, by obtain- 20 
ing so goodly a maritime province, full of seatovvns and 
havens, that might do mischief to the English, either by in- 
vasion or by interruption of traffic. The parliament was also 
moved with the point of oppression : for although the French 
seemed to speak reason, yet arguments are ever with multi- 25 
tudes too weak for suspicions. Wherefore they did advise 
the King roundly to embrace the Britons' quarrel, and to 
send them speedy aids; and with much alacrity and for- 
wardness granted to the King a great rate of subsidy, in 
contemplation of these aids. But the King, both to keep a 3° 
decency towards the French King, to whom he professed 
himself to be obliged, and indeed desirous rather to shew 



6o HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1488 

war, than to make it ; sent new solemn ambassadors to inti- 
mate unto him the decree of his estates, and to iterate his 
motion, that the French would desist from hostility; or if 
war must follow, to desire him to take it in good part, if at 
5 the motion of his people, who were sensible of the cause of 
the Britons as their ancient friends and confederates, he did 
send them succours ; with protestation nevertheless, that, to 
save all treaties and laws of friendship, he had limited his 
forces, to proceed in aid of the Britons, but in no wise to 

TO war upon the French, otherwise than as they maintained 
the possession of Britain. But before this formal ambassage 
arrived, the party of the duke had received a great blow, 
and grew to manifest declination. For near the town of 
St. Alban in Britain, a battle had been given, where the 

15 Britons were overthrown, and the duke of Orleans, and the 
prince of Orange taken prisoners, there being slain on the 
Britons' part six thousand men, and amongst them the lord 
Woodvile, and almost all his soldiers, valiantly fighting. 
And of the French part, one thousand two hundred, with 

20 their leader James Galeot a great commander. 

When the news of this battle came over into England, it 
was time for the King, who now had no subterfuge to con- 
tinue farther treaty, and saw before his eyes that Britain 
went so speedily for lost, contrary to his hopes; knowing 

25 also that with his people, and foreigners both, he sustained 
no small envy and disreputation for his former delays, to 
despatch with all possible speed his succours into Britain ; 
which he did under the conduct of Robert lord Brook, to 
the number of eight thousand choice men and well armed ; 

30 who having a fair wind, in few hours landed in Britain, and 
joined themselves forthwith to those Briton forces that re- 
mained after the defeat, and marched straight on to find the 
enemy, and encamped fast by them. The French wisely 



1488] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 61 

husbanding the possession of a victory, and well acquainted 
with the courage of the English, especially when they are 
fresh, kept themselves within their trenches, being strongly 
lodged, and resolved not to give battle. But meanwhile, to 
harass and weary the English, they did upon all advantages 5 
set upon them with their light horse ; wherein nevertheless 
they received commonly loss, especially by means of the 
English archers. 

But upon these achievements Francis duke of Britain 
deceased; an accident that the King might easily have fore- 10 
seen, and ought to have reckoned upon and provided for, 
but that the point of reputation, when news first came of the 
battle lost, that somewhat must be done, did overbear the 
reason of war. 

After the duke's decease, the principal persons of Britain, 1 5 
partly bought, partly through faction, put all things into 
confusion ; so as the English not finding head or body with 
whom to join their forces, and being in jealousy of friends, 
as well as in danger of enemies, and the winter begun, re- 
turned home five months after their landing. So the battle 20 
of St. Alban, the death of the duke, and the retire of the 
English succours, were, after some time, the causes of the 
loss of that duchy; which action some accounted as a 
blemish of the King's judgment, but most but as the misfor- 
tune of his times. 25 

But howsoever the temporary fruit of the parliament, in 
their aid and advice given for Britain, took not, nor pros- 
pered not ; yet the lasting fruit of parliament, which is good 
and wholesome laws, did prosper, and doth yet continue to 
this day. For, according to the lord Chancellor's admo- 30 
nition, there were that parliament divers excellent laws or- 
dained concerning the points which the King recommended. 

First, the authority of the star-chamber, which before 



62 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL [1488 

subsisted by the ancient common laws of the reahn, was 
confirmed in certain cases by act of parliament. This court 
is one of the sagest and noblest institutions of this kingdom. 
For in the distribution of courts of ordinary justice, besides 
5 the high court of parliament, in which distribution the 
King's bench holdeth the pleas of the crown, the common- 
place pleas civil, the exchequer pleas concerning the King's 
revenue, and the chancery the Pretorian power for mitigating 
the rigour of law, in case of extremity, by the conscience 

lo of a good man; there was nevertheless always reserved 
a high and preeminent power to the King's council, in 
causes that might in example or consequence concern the 
state of the commonwealth; which if they were criminal, 
the council used to sit in the chamber called the star- 

15 chamber; if civil, in the white-chamber or white-hall. And 
as the chancery had the Pretorian power for equity ; so the 
star-chamber had the Censorian power for offences under 
the degree of capital. This court of star-chamber is com- 
pounded of good elements, for it consisteth of four kinds of 

20 persons, counsellors, peers, prelates, and chief judges. It 
discerneth also principally of four kinds of causes, forces, 
frauds, crimes various of stellionate, and the inchoations or 
middle acts towards crimes capital or heinous, not actually 
committed or perpetrated. But that which was principally 

2 - aimed at by this act was force, and the two chief supports 
of force, combination of multitudes, and maintenance or 
headship of great pei-sons. 

From the general peace of the country the King's care 
went on to the peace of the King's house, and the security 

30 of his great officers and counsellors. But this law was 
somewhat of a strange composition and temper. That if 
any of the King's servants under the degree of a lord, do 
conspire the death of any of the King's council or lord of 



1488] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 63 

the realm, it is made capital. This law was thought to be 
procured by the lord Chancellor, who being a stern and 
haughty man, and finding he had some mortal enemies in 
court, provided for his own safety; drowning the envy of it 
in a general law, by communicating the privilege with all 5 
other counsellois and peers, and yet not daring to extend it 
farther than to the King's servants in check-roll, lest it 
should have been too harsh to the gentlemen, and other 
commons of the kingdom ; who might have thought their 
ancient liberty, and the clemency of the laws of England 10 
invaded, if the will in any case of felony should be made 
the deed. And yet the reason which the act yieldeth, that 
is to say, that he that conspireth the death of counsellors 
may be thought indirectly, and by a mean, to conspire the 
death of the King himself, is indifferent to all subjects as 15 
well as to servants in court. But it seemeth this sufficed 
to serve the lord Chancellor's turn at this time. But yet he 
lived to need a general law, for that he grew afterwards as 
odious to the country, as he was then to the court. 

From the peace of the King's house, the King's care 20 
extended to the peace of private houses and families. For 
there was an excellent moral law moulded thus ; the taking 
and carrying away of women forcibly and against their will, 
except female-wards and bond-women, was made capital. 
The parliament wisely and justly conceiving, that the 25 
obtaining of women by force into possession, howsoever 
afterwards assent might follow by allurements, was but a 
rape drawn forth in length, because the first force drew on 
all the rest. 

There was made also another law for peace in general, 30 
and repressing of murders and manslaughters, and was in 
amendment of the common laws of the realm ; being this : 
That whereas by the common law the King's suit, in case of 



64 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII ri488 

homicide, did expect the year and the day, allowed to the 
party's suit by way of appeal ; and that it was found by 
experience, that the party was many times compounded 
with, and many times wearied with the suit, so that in the 
5 end such suit was let fall, and by that time the matter was 
in a manner forgotten, and thereby prosecution at the 
King's suit by indictment, which is ever best, flagrante 
crimine^ neglected ; it was ordained, that the suit by indict- 
ment might be taken as well at any time within the year and 

lo the day, as after; not prejudicing nevertheless the party's 
suit. 

The King began also then, as well in wisdom as in 
justice, to pare a little the privilege of clergy, ordaining that 
clerks convict should be burned in the hand ; both because 

It they might taste of some corporal punishment, and that 
might carry a brand of infamy. But for this good act's 
sake, the King himself was after branded by Perkin's pro- 
clamation, for an execrable breaker of the rites of holy 
church. 

20 Another law was made for the better peace of the coun- 
try ; by which law the King's officers and farmers were to 
forfeit their places and holds, in case of unlawful retainer, or 
partaking in routs and unlawful assemblies. 

These were the laws that were made for repressing of 

25 force, which those times did chiefly require; and were so 
prudently framed, as they are found fit for all succeeding 
times, and so continue to this day. 

There were also made good and politic laws that parlia- 
ment, against usury, which is the bastard use of money ; and 

30 against unlawful chievances and exchanges, which is bastard 
usury ; and also for the security of the King's customs ; and 
for the employment of the procedures of foreign commo- 
dities, brought in by merchant-strangers, upon the native 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 65 

commodities of the realm ; together with some other laws of 
less importance. 

But howsoever the laws made in that Parliament did 
bear good and wholesome fruit ; yet the subsidy granted at 
the same time bare a fruit that proved harsh and bitter. All 5 
was inned at last into the King's barn, but it was after 
a storm. For v/hen the commissioners entered into the 
taxation of the subsidy in Yorkshire, and the bishopric of 
Durham ; the people upon a sudden grew into great mutiny, 
and said openly, That they had endured of late years 10 
a thousand miseries, and neither could nor would pay the 
subsidy. This, no doubt, proceeded not simply of any 
present necessity, but much by reason of the old humour of 
those countries, where the memory of King Richard was so 
strong, that it lay like lees in the bottom of men's hearts ; 1 5 
and if the vessel was but stirred, it would come up. And, 
no doubt, it was partly also by the instigation of some 
factious malcontents, that bare principal stroke amongst 
them. Hereupon the commissioners being somewhat asto- 
nished, deferred the matter unto the earl of Northumber- 20 
land, who was the principal man of authority in those parts. 
The earl forthwith wrote unto the court, signifying to the 
King plainly enough in what flame he found the people of 
those countries, and praying the King's direction. The 
King wrote back peremptorily. That he would not have one 25 
penny abated, of that which had been granted to him by 
parliament; both because it might encourage other coun- 
tries, to pray the like release of mitigation; and chiefly 
because he would never endure that the base multitude 
should frustrate the authority of the parhament, wherein 30 
their votes and consents were concluded. Upon this de- 
spatch from court, the earl assembled the principal justices 
and freeholders of the countiy; and speaking to them in 
B. H. 5 



66 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1489 

that imperious language, wherein the King had written to 
him, which needed not, save that an harsh business was 
unfortunately fallen into the hands of a harsh man, did not 
only irritate the people, but make them conceive, by the 

5 stoutness and haughtiness of delivery of the King's errand, 
that himself was the author or principal persuader of that 
counsel : whereupon the meaner sort routed together, and 
suddenly assailing the earl in his house, slew him, and divers 
of his servants : and rested not there, but creating for their 

lo leader Sir John Egremond, a factious person, and one, that 
had of a long time borne an ill talent towards the King; and 
being animated also by a base fellow, called John a Cham- 
ber, a very boutefeu, who bare much sway amongst the 
vulgar and popular, entered into open rebellion ; and gave 

15 out in flat terms, that they would go against King Henry, 
and fight with him for the maintenance of their Hberties. 

When the King was advertised of this new insurrection, 
being almost a fever that took him every year, after his 
manner little troubled therewith, he sent Thomas earl of 

20 Surrey, whom he had a little before not only released out of 
the Tower, and pardoned, but also received to special fa- 
vour, with a competent power against the rebels, who fought 
with the principal band of them, and defeated them, and 
took alive John a Chamber their firebrand. As for Sir John 

25 Egremond, he fled into Flanders to the lady Margaret of 
Burgundy, whose palace was the sanctuary and receptacle 
of all traitors against the King. John a Chamber was exe- 
cuted at York in great state; for he was hanged upon a 
gibbet raised a stage higher in the midst of a square gal- 

30 lows, as a traitor paramount; and a number of his men that 
were his chief complices, were hanged upon the lower story 
round about him; and the rest were generally pardoned. 
Neither did the King himself omit his custom, to be first or 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 67 

second in all his warlike exploits, making good his word, 
which was usual with him when he heard of rebels, that he 
desired but to see them. For immediately after he had sent 
down the earl of Surrey, he marched towards them himself in 
person. And although in his journey he heard news of the 5 
victory, yet he went on as far as York, to pacify and settle 
those countries : and that done, returned to London, leaving 
the earl of Surrey for his lieutenant in the northern parts, and 
Sir Richard Tunstal for his principal commissioner, to levy 
the subsidy, whereof he did not remit a denier. 10 

About the same time that the King lost so good a ser- 
vant as the earl of Northumberland, he lost likewise a faith- 
ful friend and ally of James the third. King of Scotland, by 
a miserable disaster. For this unfortunate Prince, after a 
long smother of discontent, and hatred of many of his nobi- 15 
lity and people, breaking forth at times into seditions and 
alterations of court, was at last distressed by them, having 
taken arms, and surprised the person of Prince James his 
son, partly by force, partly by threats, that they would other- 
wise deliver up the kingdom to the King of England, to 20 
shadow their rebellion, and to be the titular and painted 
head of those arms. Whereupon the King, finding himself 
too weak, sought unto King Henry, as also unto the Pope, 
and the King of France, to compose those troubles between 
him and his subjects. The Kings accordingly interposed 25 
their mediation in a round and princely manner : not only 
by way of request and persuasion, but also by way of pro- 
testation and menace ; declaring, That they thought it to be 
the common cause of all Kings, if subjects should be suffered 
to give laws unto their sovereign; and that they would ac- 30 
cordingly resent it, and revenge it. But the rebels, that had 
shaken off the greater yoke of obedience, had likewise cast 
away the lesser tie of respect. And fury prevailing above 

5—2 



68 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1489 

fear, made answer ; That there was no talking of peace, ex- 
cept the King would resign his crown. Whereupon, treaty 
of accord taking no place, it came to a battle of Bannocks- 
bourn by Strivelin : in which battle the King, transported 
5 with wrath and just indignation, inconsiderately fighting and 
precipitating the charge, before his whole numbers came up 
to him, was, notwithstanding the contrary express and strait 
commandment of the Prince his son, slain in the pursuit, 
being fled to a mill, situate in the field, where the battle was 

lo fought. 

As for the Pope's ambassy, which was sent by Adrian 
de Castello an Italian legate, and perhaps as those times 
were, might have prevailed more, it came too late for the 
ambassy, but not for the ambassador. For passing through 

15 England, and being honourably entertained, and received of 
King Henry, who ever applied himself with much respect to 
the see of Rome, he fell into great grace with the King, and 
great familiarity and friendship with Morton the Chancellor : 
insomuch as the King taking a liking to him, and finding 

20 him to his mind, preferred him to the bishopric of Hereford, 
and afterwards to that of Bath and Wells, and employed 
him in many of his affairs of state, that had relation to 
Rome. He was a man of great learning, wisdom, and dex- 
terity in business of state ; and having not long after as- 

25 cended to the degree of cardinal, paid the King large tribute 
of his gratitude, in diligent and judicious advertisement of 
the occurrents of Italy. Nevertheless, in the end of his 
time, he was partaker of the conspiracy, which cardinal Al- 
phonso Petrucci and some other cardinals had plotted 

30 against the life of Pope Leo. And this offence, in itself so 
heinous, was yet in him aggravated by the motive thereof, 
which was not malice or discontent, but an aspiring mind to 
the papacy. And in this height of impiety there wanted not 



148|] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 69 

an intermixture of levity and folly; for that, as was generally 
believed, he was animated to expect the papacy by a fatal 
mockery, the prediction of a soothsayer, which was, "That 
"one should succeed Pope Leo, whose name should be 
" Adrian, an aged man of mean birth, and of great learning 5 
"and wisdom." By which character and figure he took 
himself to be described, though it were fulfilled of Adrian 
the Fleming, son of a Dutch brewer, cardinal of Tortosa, 
and preceptor unto Charles the fifth ; the same that, not 
changing his christian name, was afterwards called Adrian 10 
the sixth. 

But these things happened in the year following, which 
was the fifth of this King. But in the end of the fourth 
year the King had called again his parliament, not, as it 
seemeth, for any particular occasion of state : but the former 1 5 
parliament being ended somewhat suddenly, in regard of 
the preparation for Britain, the King thought he had not 
remunerated his people sufiiciendy with good laws, which 
evermore was his retribution for treasure. And finding by 
the insurrection in the north, there was discontentment 20 
abroad, in respect of the subsidy, he thought it good to give 
his subjects yet farther contentment and comfort in that 
kind. Certainly his times for good commonwealths' laws 
did excel. So as he may justly be celebrated for the best 
lawgiver to this nation ; after King Edward the first : for his 25 
laws, whoso marks them well, are deep, and not vulgar; not 
made upon the spur of a particular occasion for the present, 
but out of providence of the future, to make the estate of 
his people still more and more happy; after the manner of 
the legislators in ancient and heroical times. 30 

First therefore he made a law, suitable to his own acts 
and times : for as himself had in his person and marriage 
made a final concord, in the great suit and title for the 



70 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [148f 

crown ; so by this law he settled the like peace and quiet in 
the private possessions of the subjects : ordaining, " That 
" fines thenceforth should be final, to conclude all strangers' 
"rights;" and that upon fines levied, and solemnly pro- 
5 claimed, the subject should have his time of watch for five 
years after his title accrued ; which if he forepassed, his 
right should be bound for ever after ; with some exception 
nevertheless of minors, married women, and such incompe- 
tent persons. 

lo This statute did in effect but restore an ancient statute 
of the realm, which was itself also made but in affirmance of 
the common law. The alteration had been by a statute, 
commonly called the statute of non-claim^ made in the time 
of Edward the third. And surely this law was a kind of 

1 5 prognostic of the good peace, which since his time hath, for 
the most part, continued in this kingdom until this day : for 
statutes of non-claim are fit for times of war, when men's 
heads are troubled, that ^ they cannot intend their estate ; 
but statutes that quiet possessions, are fittest for tmies of 

20 peace, to extinguish suits and contentions, which is one of 
the banes of peace. 

Another statute was made, of singular policy, for the 
population apparently, and, if it be thoroughly considered, 
for the soldiery and military forces of the realm. 

25 Inclosures at that time began to be more frequent, 
whereby arable land, which could not be manured without 
people and families, was turned into pasture, which was 
easily rid by a few herdsmen ; and tenances for years, lives, 
and at will, whereupon much of the yeomamy lived, were 

30 turned into demesnes. This bred a decay of people, and, by 
consequence, a decay of towns, churches, tithes, and the 
like. The King likewise knew full well, and in no wise 
forgot, that there ensued withal upon this a decay and dimi- 



148|] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 71 

nution of subsidies and taxes ; for the more gentlemen, ever 
the lower books of subsidies. In remedying of this incon- 
venience the King's virisdom was admirable, and the parlia- 
ment's at that time. Inclosures they would not forbid, for 
that had been to forbid the improvement of the patrimony 5 
of the kingdom ; nor tillage they would not compel, for that 
was to strive with nature and utility : but they took a course 
to take away depopulating inclosures and depopulating 
pasturage, and yet not by that name, or by any imperious 
express prohibition, but by consequence. The ordinance 10 
was, " That all houses of husbandry, that were used with 
" twenty acres of ground and upwards, should be maintained 
" and kept up for ever ; together with a competent propor- 
" tion of land to be used and occupied with them ; " and in 
no wise to be severed from them as by another statute, made 15 
afterwards in his successor's time, was more fully declared : 
this upon forfeiture to be taken, not by way of popular 
action, but by seizure of the land itself by the King and 
lords of the fee, as to half the profits, till the houses and 
lands were restored. By this means the houses being kept 20 
up, did of necessity enforce a dweller ; and the proportion 
of land for occupation being kept up, did of necessity 
enforce that dweller not to be a beggar or cottager, but a man 
of some substance, that might keep hinds and servants, and 
set the plough on going. This did wonderfully concern the 25 
might and mannerhood of the kingdom, to have farms as it 
were of a standard, sufficient to maintain an able body out 
of penury, and did in effect amortise a great part of the 
lands of the kingdom unto the hold and occupation of the 
yeomanry or middle people, of a condition between gentle- 30 
men and cottagers or peasants. Now, how much this did 
advance the military power of the kingdom, is apparent by 
the true principles of war and the examples of other king- 



72 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [148| 

doms. For it hath been held by the general opinion of men 
of best judgment in the wars, howsoever some few have 
varied, and that it may receive some distinction of case, 
that the principal strength of an army consisteth in the 
5 infantry or foot. And to make good infantry, it requireth 
men bred, not in a servile or indigent fashion, but in some 
free and plentiful manner. Therefore if a state run most to 
noblemen and gentlemen, and that the husbandmen and 
ploughmen be but as their workfolks and labourers, or else 

lo mere cottagers, which are but housed beggars, you may have 
a good cavalry but never good stable bands of foot ; like to 
coppice woods, that if you leave in them staddles too thick, 
they will run to bushes and briars, and have little clean 
underwood. And this is to be seen in France and Italy, 

1 c and some other parts abroad, where in effect all is noblesse 
or peasantry, I speak of people out of towns, and no 
middle people ; and therefore no good forces of foot : inso- 
much as they are enforced to employ mercenary bands of 
Switzers, and the like, for their battalions of foot. Whereby 

2o also it comes to pass, that those nations have much people, 
and few soldiers. Whereas the King saw, that contrariwise 
it would follow, that England, though much less in territory, 
yet should have infinitely more soldiers of their native forces 
than those other nations have. Thus did the King secretly 

25 sow Hydra's teeth; whereupon, according to the poet's 
fiction, should rise up armed men for the service of this 
kingdom. 

The King also, having care to make his realm potent, as 
well by sea as by land, for the better maintenance of the 

30 navy, ordained; "That wines and woads from the parts of 
" Gascoign and Languedoc, should not be brought but in 
" English bottoms;" bowing the ancient policy of this estate, 
from consideration of plenty to consideration of power. For 



1485] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 73 

that almost all the ancient statutes incite by all means 
merchant-strangers, to bring in all sorts of commodities ; 
having for end cheapness, and not looking to the point of 
state concerning the naval power. 

The King also made a statute in that parliament, moni- 5 
tory and minatory towards justices of peace, that they should 
duly execute their office, inviting complaints against them, 
first to their fellow-justices, then to the justices of assize, 
then to the King or Chancellor; and that a proclamation 
which he had published of that tenor, should be read in 10 
open sessions four times a year, to keep them awake. 
Meaning also to have his laws executed, and thereby to 
reap either obedience or forfeitures, wherein towards his 
latter times he did decline too much to the left hand, he 
did ordain remedy against the practice that was grown 15 
in use, to stop and damp informations upon penal laws, 
by procuring informations by collusion to be put in 
by the confederates of the delinquents, to be faintly 
prosecuted, and let fall at pleasure; and pleading them 
in bar of the informations, which were prosecuted with 20 
effect. 

He made also laws for the correction of the mint, and 
counterfeiting of foreign coin current. And that no pay- 
ment in gold should be made to any merchant-stranger, the 
better to keep treasure within the realm, for that gold was 25 
the metal that lay in the least room. 

He made also statutes for the maintenance of drapery, 
and the keeping of wools within the realm; and not only so, 
but for stinting and limiting the prices of cloth, one for the 
finer, and another for the coarser sort. Which I note, both 30 
because it was a rare thing to set prices by statute, especi- 
ally upon our home commodities ; and because of the wise 
model of this act, not prescribing prices, but stinting them 



74 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1489 

not to exceed a rate ; that the clothier might drape accord- 
ingly as he might afford. 

Divers other good statutes were made that parliament, 
but these were the principal. And here I do desire those 
5 into whose hands this work shall fall, that they do take in 
good part my long insisting upon the laws that were made 
in this King's reign. Whereof I have these reasons ; both 
because it was the preeminent virtue and merit of this King, 
to whose memory I do honour ; and because it hath some 

lo correspondence to my person; but chiefly because, in my 
judgment, it is some defect even in the best writers of 
history, that they do not often enough summarily deliver 
and set down the most memorable laws that passed in the 
times whereof they writ, being indeed the principal acts of 

1 5 peace. For though they may be had in original books of 

. law themselves ; yet that informeth not the judgment of 
Kings and counsellors, and persons of estate, so well as to 
see them described, and entered in the table and portrait 
of the times. 

2o About the same time the King had a loan from the city 
of four thousand pounds ; which was double to that they 
lent before, and was duly and orderly paid back at the day, 
as the former likewise had been : the King ever choosing 
rather to borrow too soon, than to pay too late, and so 

25 keeping up his credit. 

Neither had the King yet cast off his cares and hopes 
touching Britain, but thought to master the occasion by 
policy, though his arms had been unfortunate; and to 
bereave the French King of the fruit of his victory. The 

30 sum of his design was, to encourage Maximilian to go on 
with his suit, for the marriage of Anne, the heir of Britain, 
and to aid him to the consummation thereof But the affairs 
of Maximilian were at that time in great trouble and com- 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 75 

bustion, by a rebellion of his subjects in Flanders; espe- 
cially those of Bruges and Gaunt, whereof the town of 
Bruges, at such time as Maximilian was there in person, had 
suddenly armed in tumult, and slain some of his principal 
officers, and taken himself prisoner, and held him in durance, 5 
till they had enforced him and some of his counsellors, to 
take a solemn oath to pardon all their offences, and never 
to question and revenge the same in time to come. Never- 
theless Frederick the emperor would not suffer this re- 
proach and indignity offered to his son to pass, but made lo 
sharp wars upon Flanders, to reclaim and chastise the rebels. 
But the lord Ravenstein, a principal person about Maxi- 
milian, and one that had taken the oath of abolition with 
his master, pretending the religion thereof; but indeed upon 
l)rivate ambition, and, as it was thought, instigated and cor- 15 
rupted from France, forsook the emperor and Maximilian 
his lord, and made himself an head of the popular party, and 
seized upon the towns of Ypres and Sluice with both the 
castles : and forthwith sent to the lord Cordes, governor of 
Picardy under the French King, to desire aid ; and to move 20 
him, that he, on the behalf of the French King, would be 
protector of the united towns, and by force of arms reduce 
the rest. The lord Cordes was ready to embrace the occa- 
sion, which was partly of his own setting, and sent forthwith 
greater forces than it had been possible for him to raise on 25 
the sudden, if he had not looked for such a summons 
before, in aid of the lord Ravenstein and the Flemings, with 
instructions to invest the towns between France and Bruges 
The French forces besieged a little town called Dixmude, 
where part of the Flemish forces joined with them. While -^o 
they lay at this siege, the King of England, upon pretence 
of the safety of the English pale about Calais, but in truth 
being loth that Maximilian should become contemptible, and 



76 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1489 

thereby be shaken otf by the states of Britain about this 
marriage, sent over the lord Morley with a thousand men, 
unto the lord Daubeney, then deputy of Calais, with secret 
instructions to aid Maximilian, and to raise the siege of Dix- 
5 mude. The lord Daubeney, giving it out that all was for 
the strengthening of the English marches, drew out of the 
garrisons of Calais, Hammes and Guines, to the number of a 
thousand men more. So that with the fresh succours that 
came under the conduct of the lord Morley, they made up 

1 o to the number of two thousand or better. Which forces 
joining with some companies of Almains, put themselves 
into Dixmude, not perceived by the enemies ; and passing 
through the town with some reinforcement, from the forces 
that were in the town, assailed the enemies' camp negligently 

15 guarded, as being out of fear: where there was a bloody 
fight, in which the English and their partakers obtained the 
victory, and slew to the number of eight thousand men, 
with the loss on the English part of a hundred or there- 
abouts; amongst whom was the lord Morley. They took 

20 also their great ordnance, with much rich spoils, which 
they carried to Newport; whence the lord Daubeney re- 
turned to Calais, leaving the hurt men and some other 
voluntaries in Newport. But the lord Cordes being at Ypres 
with a great power of men, thinking to recover the loss and 

25 disgrace of the fight at Dixmude, came presently on, and sat 
down before Newport, and besieged it; and after some days' 
siege, he resolved to try the fortune of an assault. Which 
he did one day, and succeeded therein so far, that he had 
taken the principal tower and fort in that city, and planted 

30 upon it the French banner. Whence nevertheless they were 
presently beaten forth by the English, by the help of some 
fresh succours of archers, arriving by good fortune, at the 
instant, in the haven of Newport. Whereupon the lord 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 77 

Cordes, discouraged, and measuring the new succours, which 
were small, by the success, which was great, levied his siege. 
By this means matters grew more exasperate between the 
two Kings of England and France, for that, in the war of 
Flanders, the auxiliary forces of French and English were 5 
much blooded one against another. Which blood rankled 
the more, by the vain words of the lord Cordes, that declared 
himself an open enemy of the English, beyond that that 
appertained to the present service; making it a common by- 
word of his, " That he could be content to lie in hell seven 10 
"years, so he might win Calais from the English." 

The King having thus upheld the reputation of Maxi- 
milian, advised him now to press on his marriage with 
Britain to a conclusion. Which Maximilian accordingly 
did, and so far forth prevailed, both with the young lady 15 
and with the principal persons about her, as the marriage 
was consummated by proxy, with a ceremony at that time in 
these parts new. For she was not only publicly contracted, 
but stated, as a bride, and solemnly bedded. This done, 
Maximilian, whose property was to leave things then when 20 
they were almost come to perfection, and to end them by 
imagination; like ill archers, that draw not their arrows up 
to the head; thinking now all assured, neglected for a time 
his further proceeding, and intended his wars. Meanwhile 
the French King, consulting with his divines, and finding 25 
that this pretended consummation was rather an invention 
of court, than any ways valid by the laws of the church, 
went more really to work, and by secret instruments and 
cunning agents, as well matrons about the young lady as 
counsellors, first sought to remove the point of religion and 30 
honour out of the mind of the lady herself, wherein there 
was a double labour. For Maximilian was not only con- 
tracted unto the lady, but Maximilian's daughter was like- 



78 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1489 

wise contracted to King Charles. So as the marriage halted 
upon both feet, and was not clear on either side. But for 
the contract with King Charles, the exception lay plain and 
fair ; for that Maximilian's daughter was under years of con- 
5 sent, and so not bound by law, but a power of disagreement 
left to either part. But for the contract made by Maximilian 
with the lady herself, they were harder driven: having 
nothing to allege, but that it was done without the consent 
of her sovereign lord King Charles, whose ward and client 

lo she was, and he to her in place of a father; and therefore it 
was void and of no force for want of such consent. So 
that the young lady, wrought upon by these reasons, finely 
instilled by such as the French King, who spared for no 
rewards or promises, had made on his side; and allured 

15 likewise by the present glory and greatness of King Charles, 
being also a young King, and a bachelor, and loth 10 
make her country the seat of a long and miserable war; 
secretly yielded to accept of King Charles. But during 
this secret treaty with the lady, the better to save it from 

20 blasts of opposition and interruption, King Charles resort- 
ing to his wonted arts, and thinking to carry the marriage 
as he had carried the wars, by entertaining the King of 
England in vain belief, sent a solemn ambassage by 
Francis lord of Luxemburg, Charles Marignian, and Ro- 

25 bert Gagvien, general of the order of the bofis-hommes 
of the Trinity, to treat a peace and league with the King ; 
accoupling it with an article in the nature of a request, 
that the French King might with the King's good-will, ac- 
cording unto his right of seigniory and tutelage, dispose 

30 of the marriage of the young duchess of Britain, as he 
should think good ; offering by a judicial proceeding to 
make void the marriage of Maximilian by proxy. Also all 
this while, the better to amuse the world, he did continue in 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 79 

his court and custody the daughter of Maximilian, who 
formerly had been sent unto him, to be bred and educated 
in France; not dismissing orrenvoying her, but contrariwise • 
professing and giving out strongly, that he meant to proceed 
with that match. And that for the duchess of Britain, he 5 
desired only to preserve his right of seigniory, and to give 
her in marriage to some such ally as might depend upon 
him. 

When the three commissioners came to the court of 
England, they deHvered their ambassage unto the King, 10 
who remitted them to his council ; where some days after 
they had audience, and made their proposition by the prior 
of the Trinity, who though he were third in place, yet was 
held the best speaker of them, to this effect. 

"My lords, the King our master, the greatest and 15 
"mightiest King that reigned in France since Charles the 
" Great, whose name he beareth, hath nevertheless thought 
"it no disparagement to his greatness at this time to pro- 
" pound a peace ; yea, and to pray a peace with the King 
" of England. For which purpose he hath sent us his com- 20 
"missioners, instructed and enabled with full and ample 
" power to treat and conclude ; giving us further in charge, 
"to open in some other business the secrets of his own 
" intentions. These be indeed the precious love tokens be- 
"tween great Kings, to communicate one with another the 25 
"true state of their affairs, and to pass by nice points of 
" honour, which ought not to give law unto affection. This 
" I do assure your lordships ; ii is not possible for you to 
" imagine the true and cordial love that the King our mas- 
" ter beareth to your sovereign, except you were near him 30 
" as we are. He useth his name with so great respect ; he 
" remembereth their first acquaintance at Paris with so great 
"contentment; nay, he never speaks of him, but that pre- 



So HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1489 

"sently he falls into discourse of the miseries of great 
" Kings, in that they cannot converse with their equals, but 
• '' with servants. This affection to your King's person and 
"virtues God hath put into the heart of our master, no 
5 '' doubt for the good of Christendom, and for purposes yet 
" unknown to us all. For other root it cannot have, since 
" it was the same to the earl of Richmond, that it is now to 
" the King of England. This is therefore the first motive 
" that makes our King to desire peace and league with your 

lo "sovereign : good affection, and somewhat that he finds in 
" his own heart. This affection is also armed with reason 
" of estate. For our King doth in all candour and frankness 
" of dealing open himself unto you ; that having an honour- 
" able, yea, and an holy purpose, to make a voyage and war 

15 " in remote parts, he considereth that it will be of no small 
" effect, in i)oint of reputation to his enterprise, if it be 
•' known abroad that he is in good peace with all his neigh- 
" hour Princes, and especially with the King of England, 
" whom for good causes he esteemeth most 

20 " But now, my lords, give me leave to use a few words 
" to remove all scruples and misunderstandings, between 
" your sovereign and ours, concerning some late actions ; 
" which if they be not cleared, may perhaps hinder this 
" peace ; to the end, that for matters past neither King 

25 "may conceive unkindness of other, nor think the other 
" conceiveth unkindness of him. The late actions are two ; 
" that of Britain, and that of Flanders. In both which it is 
" true, that the subjects' swords of both Kings have encoun- 
" tered and stricken, and the ways and inclinations also of 

30 " the two Kings, in respect of their confederates and allies, 
" have severed. 

" For that of Britain, the King your sovereign knoweth 
" best what hath passed. It was a war of necessity on our 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 8i 

" master's part. And though the motives of it were sharp 
"and piquant as could be, yet did he make that war rather 
"with an olive-branch, than a laurel-branch in his hand, 
" more desiring peace than victory. Besides, from time to 
"time he sent, as it were, blank papers to your King, to 5 
"write the conditions of peace. For though both his 
"honour and safety went upon it, yet he thought neither 
" of them too precious to put into the King of England's 
"hands. Neither doth our King on the other side make 
" any unfriendly interpretation of your King's sending of i o 
" succours to the duke of Britain ; for the King knoweth 
"well, that many things must be done of Kings for satis- 
" faction of their people ; and it is not hard to discern what 
" is a King's own. But this matter of Britain, is now, by 
"the act of God, ended and passed; and, as the King 15 
" hopeth, like the way of a ship in the sea, without leaving 
" any impression in either of the Kings' minds : as he is sure 
" for his part it hath not done in his. 

" For the action of Flanders : as the former of Britain 
"was a war of necessity, so this was a war of justice; which 20 
"with a good King is of .equal necessity with danger of 
" estate, for else he should leave to be a King. The sub- 
"jects of Burgundy are subjects in chief to the crown of 
" France, and their duke the homager and vassal of France. 
" They had wont to be good subjects, howsoever Maximilian 25 
" hath of late distempered them. They fled to the King for 
"justice and deliverance from oppression. Justice he could 
" not deny ; purchase he did not seek. This was good for 
" Maximilian, if he could have seen it in people mutinied, 
" to arrest fury, and prevent despair. My lords, it may be 30 
*' this I have said is needless, save that the King our master 
" is tender in anything, that may but glance upon the friend- 
" ship of England. The amity between the two Kings, no 

B. H. 6 



82 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1489 

" doubt, stands entire and inviolate : and that their subjects' 
" swords have clashed, it is nothing unto the public peace of 
" the crowns ; it being a thing very usual in auxiliary forces 
"of the best and straitest confederates to meet and draw 
5 " blood in the field. Nay, many times there be aids of the 
" same nation on both sides, and yet it is not, for all that, a 
"kingdom divided in itself. 

" It resteth, my lords, that I impart unto you a matter, 
" that I know your lordships all will much rejoice to hear ; 

I o "as that which importeth the Christian commonweal more, 
" than any action that hath happened of long time. The 
" King our master hath a purpose and determination to 
"make war upon the Kingdom of Naples; being now in the 
" possession of a bastard slip of Aragon, but appertaining 

15 "unto his Majesty by clear and undoubted right; which if 
" he should not by just arms seek to recover, he could nei- 
" ther acquit his honour nor answer it to his people. But 
" his noble and Christian thoughts rest not here : for his 
" resolution and hope is, to make the reconquest of Naples, 

20 " but as a bridge to transport his forces into Grtecia ; and 
" not to spare blood or treasure, if it were to the impawning 
" of his crown, and dispeopling of France, till either he hath 
" overthrown the empire of the Ottomans, or taken it in his 
" way to paradise. The King knoweth well, that this is a 

25 "design that could not arise in the mind of any King, that 
" did not stedfastly look up unto God, whose quarrel this is, 
" and from whom cometh both the will and the deed. But 
"yet it is agreeable to the person that he beareth, though 
" unworthy, of the thrice Christian King and the eldest son 

30 " of the church. Whereunto he is also invited by the ex- 
" ample, in more ancient time, of King Henry the fourth of 
" England, the first renowned King of the House of Lan- 
" caster; ancestor, though not progenitor to your King, 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 83 

who had a purpose towards the end of liis time, as you 
know better, to make an expedition into the Holy Land; 
and by the example also, present before his eyes, of that 
honourable and religious war which the King of Spain 
now maketh, and hath almost brought to perfection, for 5 
the recovery of the realm of Granada from the Moors. 
And although this enterprise may seem vast and unmea- 
sured, for the King to attempt that by his own forces, 
wherein heretofore a conjunction of most of the Christian 
Princes hath found work enough; yet his Majesty wisely 10 
considereth, that sometimes smaller forces being united 
under one command, are more effectual in proof, though 
not so promising in opinion and fame, than much greater 
forces, variously compounded by associations and leagues, 
which commonly in a short time after their beginnings 15 
turn to dissociations and divisions. But, my lords, that 
which is as a voice from heaven, that calleth the King to 
this enterprise, is a rent at this time in the house of the 
Ottomans. I do not say but there hath been brother 
against brother in that house before, but never any that 20 
had refuge to the arms of the Christians, as now hath 
Gemes, brother unto Bajazet that reigneth, the far braver 
man of the two, the other being between a monk and a 
philosopher, and better read in the Alcoran and Averroes, 
than able to wield the sceptre of so warlike an empire. 25 
This therefore is the King our master's memorable and 
heroical resolution for an holy war. And because he car- 
rieth in this the person of a Christian soldier, as well as of 
a great temporal monarch, he beginneth with humility, 
and is content for this cause to beg peace at the hands of 30 
other Christian Kings. There remaineth only rather a 
civil request than any essential part of our negotiation, 
which the King maketh to the King your sovereign. The 

6—2 



84 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. [1489 

" King, as all the world knoweth, is lord in chief of the 
" duchy of Britain. The marriage of the heir belongeth to 
" him as guardian. This is a private patrimonial right, and 
" no business of estate : yet nevertheless, to run a fair 
5 " course with your King, whom he desires to make another 
*' himself, and to be one and the same thing with him, his 
" request is, that with the King's favour and consent he may 
" dispose of her in marriage, as he thinketh good, and make 
" void the intruded and pretended marriage of Maximilian, 

ID "according to justice. This, my lords, is all that I have 
" to say, desiring your pardon for my weakness in the 
"delivery." 

Thus did the French ambassadors, with great shew of 
their King's affection and many sugared words, seek to ad- 

15 dulce all matters between the two Kings, having two things 
for their ends ; the one to keep the King quiet till the mar- 
riage of Britain was past ; and this was but a summer fruit, 
which they thought was almost ripe, and would soon be 
gathered. The other was more lasting; and that was to put 

20 him into such a temper, as he might be no disturbance or 
impediment to the voyage for Italy. The lords of the coun- 
cil were silent ; and said only, "That they knew the ambas- 
" sadors would look for no answer, till they had reported to 
"the King;" and so they rose from council. The King 

25 could not well tell what to think of the marriage of Britain. 
He saw plainly the ambition of the French King was to im- 
patronise himself of the duchy; but he wondered he would 
bring into his house a litigious marriage, especially consider- 
ing who was his successor. But weighing one thing with 

30 another he gave Britain for lost; but resolved to make his 
profit of this business of Britain, as a quarrel for war ; and 
that of Naples, as a wrench and mean for peace ; being well 
advertised, how strongly the King was bent upon that action. 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 85 

Having therefore conferred divers times with his council, 
and keeping himself somewhat close, he gave a direction to 
the Chancellor, for a formal answer to the ambassadors, and 
that he did in the presence of his council. And after call- 
ing the Chancellor to him apart, bade him speak in such 5 
language, as was fit for a treaty that was to end in a breach ; 
and gave him also a special caveat, that he should not use 
any words to discourage the voyage of Italy. Soon after 
the ambassadors were sent for to the council, and the lord 
Chancellor spake to them in this sort : 10 

" My lords ambassadors, I shall make answer by the 
'' King's commandment, unto the eloquent declaration of 
" you, my lord prior, in a brief and plain manner. The 
" King forgetteth not his former love and acquaintance with 
"the King your master: but of this there needeth no repe- 75 
" tition. For if it be between them as it was, it is well ; if 
"there be any alteration, it is not words that will make 
"it up. 

" For the business of Britain, the King findeth it a little 
" strange that the French King maketh mention of it as a 20 
" matter of well deserving at his hand : for that deserving 
" was no more, but to make him his instrument to surprise 
" one of his best confederates. And for the marriage the 
" King would not meddle with it, if your master would 
" marry by the book, and not by the sword. 25 

" For that of Flanders, if the subjects of Burgundy had 
" appealed to your King as their chief lord, at first by way 
" of supplication, it might have had a shew of justice : but 
"it was a new form of process, for subjects to imprison 
" their Prince first, and to slay his officers, and then to be 30 
"complainants. The King saith, That sure he is, when 
" the French King and himself sent to the subjects of Scot- 
" land, that had taken arms against their King, they both 



86 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1489 

" spake in another style, and did in princely manner signify 
" their detestation of popular attentates upon the person or 
"authority of Princes. But, my lords ambassadors, the 
" King leaveth these two actions thus : that on the one side 
5 " he hath not received any manner of satisfaction from you 
"concerning them; and on the other, that he doth not ap- 
" prehend them so deeply, as in respect of them to refuse to 
" treat of peace, if other things may go hand in hand. As 
" for the war of Naples, and the design against the Turk ; 

TO "the King hath commanded me expressly to say, that he 
" doth wish with all his heart to his good brother the 
" French King, that his fortunes may succeed according to 
"his hopes and honourable intentions. And whensoever 
" he shall hear that he is prepared for Graecia, as your 

15 "master is pleased now to say that he beggeth a peace of 
" the King, so the King will then beg of him a part in 
" tliat war. 

" But now, my lords ambassadors, I am to propound 
" unto you somewhat on the King's part : The King your 

20 " master hath taught our King what to say and demand. 
" You say, my lord prior, that your King is resolved to 
" recover his right to Naples, wrongfully detained from him. 
" And that if he should not thus do, he could not acquit his 
"honour, nor answer it to his people. Think, my lords, 

25 " that the King our master saith the same thing over again 
" to you touching Normandy, Guienne, Anjou, yea, and the 
" kingdom of France itself. I cannot express it better than 
" in your own words : If therefore the French King shall 
" consent, that the King our master's title to France, at least 

30 " tribute for the same, be handled in the treaty, the King is 
" content to go on with the rest, otherwise he refuseth to 
" treat." 

The ambassadors, being somewhat abashed with this 



1489] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 87 

demand, answered in some heat; That they doubted not, 
but the King their sovereign's sword would be able to main- 
tain his sceptre : and they assured themselves, he neither 
could nor would yield to any diminution of the crown of 
France, either in territory or regality : but, howsoever, they 5 
were too great matters for them to speak of, having no com- 
mission. It was replied, that the King looked for no other 
answer from them, but would forthwith send his own ambas- 
sadors to the French King. There was a question also asked 
at the table; whether the French King would agree to have to 
the disposing of the marriage of Britain with an exception 
and exclusion, that he should not marry her himself? 
To which the ambassadors answered; That it was so far out 
of their King's thoughts, as they had received no instructions 
touching the same. Thus were the ambassadors dismissed, 1 5 
all save the prior; and were followed immediately by 
Thomas earl of Ormond, and Thomas Goldenston prior of 
Christ-Church in Canterbury, who were presently sent over 
into France. In the mean space Lionel bishop of Concordia 
was sent as nuncio from Pope Alexander the sixth to both 20 
Kings, to move a peace between them. For Pope Alexan- 
der, finding himself pent and locked up by a league and 
association of the principal states of Italy, that he could not 
make his way for the advancement of his own house, which 
he immoderately thirsted after, was desirous to trouble the 25 
waters in Italy, that he might fish the better; casting the 
net, not out of Saint Peter's, but out of Borgia's bark. And 
doubting lest the fears from England might stay the French 
King's voyage into Italy, despatched this bishop,, to compose 
all matters between the two Kings, if he could : who first 30/ 
repaired to the French King, and finding him well inclined.,, 
as he conceived, took on his jpuirney towards England, and 
found the English ambassadors, at Calais, oja their way 



88 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1491 

towards the French King. After some conference with 
them, he was in honourable manner transported over into 
England, where he had audience of the King. But not- 
withstanding he had a good ominous name to have made a 
5 peace, nothing followed : for in the mean time the purpose 
of the French King to marry the duchess, could be no 
longer dissembled. Wherefore the English ambassadors, 
finding how things went, took their leave, and returned. 
And the prior also was warned from hence to depart out of 

lo England. Who when he turned his back, more like a 
pedant than an ambassador, dispersed a bitter libel, in Latin 
verse, against the King; unto which the King, though he 
had nothing of a pedant, yet was content to cause an answer 
to be made in like verse ; and that as speaking in his own 

15 person, but in a style of scorn and sport. About this time 
also was born the King's second son Henry, who afterwards 
reigned. And soon after followed the solemnization of the 
marriage between Charles and Anne duchess of Britain, with 
whom he received the duchy of Britain as her dowry, the 

20 daughter of Maximilian being a little before sent home. 
Which when it came to the ears of Maximilian, who would 
never believe it till it was done, being ever the principal in 
deceiving himself, though in this the French King did very 
handsomely second it, in tumbling it over and over in his 

25 thoughts, that he should at one blow, with such a double 
scorn, be defeated, both of the marriage of his daughter and 
his own, upon both which he had fixed high imaginations, he 
lost all patience, and casting ofi" the respects fit to be con- 
tinued between great Kings, even when their blood is 

30 hottest, and most risen, fell to bitter invectives against the 
person and actions of the French King. And, by how 
much he was the less able to do, talking so much the more, 
spake all the injuries he could devise of Charles, saying; 



1491] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 89 

That he was the most perfidious man upon the earth, and 
that he had made a marriage compounded between an 
advowtry and a rape ; which was done, he said, by the just 
judgment of God ; to the end that, the nullity thereof being 
so apparent to all the world, the race of so unworthy a 5 
person might not reign in France. And forthwith he sent 
ambassadors as well to the King of England as to the King of 
Spain, to incite them to war, and to treat a league offensive 
against France, promising to concur with great forces of his 
own. Hereupon the King of England, going nevertheless 10 
his own way, called a parliament, it being the seventh year 
of his reign ; and the first day of opening thereof, sitting 
under his cloth of estate, spake himself unto his lords and 
commons in this manner : 

" MY lords, and you the commons, when I purposed to 15 
" make a war in Britain by my lieutenant, I made declara- 
" tion thereof to you by my Chancellor. But now that 
" I mean to make a war upon France in person, I will 
" declare it to you myself. That war was to defend 
" another man's right, but this is to recover our own ; 20 
'' and that ended by accident, but we hope this shall end 
" in victory. 

" The French King troubles the Christian world : that 
" which he hath is not his own, and yet he seeketh more. 
" He hath invested himself of Britain : he maintaineth the 25 
" rebels in Flanders : and he threateneth Italy. For our- 
" selves, he hath proceeded from dissimulation to neglect ; 
" and from neglect to contumely. He hath assailed our 
" confederates : he denieth our tribute : in a word, he seeks 
" war : so did not his father, but sought peace at our hands; 30 
** and so perhaps will he, when good counsel or time shall 
" make him see as much as his father did. 

" Mean while, let us make his ambition our advantage ; 



90 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1491 

" and let us not stand upon a few crowns of tribute or 
" acknowledgement, but, by the favour of Almighty God, try 
" our right for the crown of France itself; remembering that 
" there hath been a French King prisoner in England, and 
5 '' a King of England crowned in France. Our confederates 
" are not diminished. Burgundy is in a mightier hand than 
" ever, and never more provoked. Britain cannot help us, 
" but it may hurt them. New acquests are more burden 
"than strength. The malcontents of his own kingdom 

10 "have not been base, popular, nor titulary impostors, but 
"of an higher nature. The King of Spain, doubt ye not, 
" will join with us, not knowing where the French King's 
" ambition will stay. Our holy father the Pope likes no 
" Tramontanes in Italy. But howsoever it be, this matter 

15 "of confederates is rather to be thought on than reckoned 
" on. For God forbid but England should be able to get 
" reason of France without a second. 

" At the battles of Cressy, Poictiers, Agincourt, we were 
" of ourselves. France hath much people, and few soldiers. 

20 " They have no stable bands of foot. Some good horse 
" they have ; but those are forces which are least lit for a 
" defensive war, where the actions are in the assailant's 
" choice. It was our discords only that lost France ; and, 
'' by the power of God, it is the good peace which we now 

25 " enjoy, that will recover it. God hath hitherto blessed my 
" sword. I have, in this time that I have reigned, weeded 
" out my bad subjects, and tried my good. My people and I 
" know one another, which breeds confidence : and if there 
" should be any bad blood left in the kingdom, an honour- 

30 " able foreign war will vent it or purify it. In this great 
" business, let me have your advice and aid. If any of you 
" were to make his son knight, you might have aid of your 
" tenants by law. This concerns the knighthood and. spurs., 



1491] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 91 

" of the kingdom, whereof I am father ; and bound not only 
" to seek to maintain it, but to advance it : but for matter 
" of treasure, let it not be taken from the poorest sort, but 
'•' from those to whom the benefit of the war may redound. 
" France is no v/ilderness \ and I, that profess good hus- 5 
" bandry, hope to make the war, after the beginnings, to 
" pay itself. Go together in God's name, and lose no time ; 
" for I have called this parliament wholly for this cause." 

Thus spake the King ; but for all this, though he shewed 
great forwardness for a war, not only to his parliament and i o 
court, but to his privy-council likewise, except the two 
bishops and a few more, yet nevertheless in his secret in- 
tentions he had no purpose to go through with any war 
upon France. But the truth was, that he did but traffic 
with that war, to make his return in money. He knew 15 
well, that France was now entire and at unity with itself, 
and never so mighty many years before. He saw by the 
taste that he had of his forces sent into Britain, that the 
French knew well enough how to make war with the Eng- 
lish, by not putting things to the hazard of a battle, but 20 
wearing them by long sieges of towns, and strong fortified 
encampings. James the third of Scotland, his true friend 
and confederate, gone; and James the fourth, that had 
succeeded, wholly at the devotion of France, and ill af- 
fected towards him. As for the conjunctions of Ferdinando 25 
of Spain and Maximilian, he could make no foundation 
upon them. For the one had power, and not will; and 
the other had will, and not power. Besides that, Ferdi- 
nando had but newly taken breath from the war with the 
Moors ; and merchanded at this time with France for the 30 
restoring of the counties of Russignon and Perpignian, op- 
pignorated to the French. Neither was he out of fear of 
the discontents and ill blood within the realm ; which 



92 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1491 

having used always to repress and appease in person, he 
was loth they should find him at a distance beyond sea, 
and engaged in war. Finding therefore the inconveniences 
and difficulties in the prosecution of a war, he cast with 
2 himself how to compass two things. The one, how by the 
declaration and inchoation of a war to make his profit. 
The other, how to come off from the war with saving of 
his honour. For profit, it was to be made two ways ; 
upon his subjects for the war, and upon his enemies for 

lo the peace; like a good merchant, that maketh his gain 
both upon the commodities exported and imported back 
again. For the point of honour, wherein he might suffer 
for giving over the war; he considered well, that as he 
could not trust upon the aids of Ferdinando and Maxi- 

1 5 milian for supports of war ; so the impuissance of the one, 
and the double proceeding of the other, lay fair for him for 
occasions to accept of peace. These things he did wisely 
foresee, and did as artificially conduct, whereby all things 
fell into his lap as he desired. 

2o For as for the parliament, it presently took fire, being 
affectionate, of old, to the war of France ; and desirous 
afresh to repair the dishonour they thought the King sus- 
tained by the loss of Britain. Therefore they advised the-' 
King, with great alacrity, to undertake the war of France. 

25 And although the parliament consisted of the first and 
second nobifity, together with principal citizens and towns- 
men, yet worthily and justly respecting more the people, 
whose deputies they were, than their own private persons, 
and finding by the lord Chancellor's speech the King's 

30 inclination that way; they consented that commissioners 
should go forth for the gathering and levying of a bene- 
volence from the more able sort. This tax, called a bene- 
volence, was devised by Edward the fourth, for which he 



1491] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIT. 93 

sustained much envy- It was abolished by Richard the 
third by act of parliament, to ingratiate himself with the 
people; and it was now revived by the King, but with 
consent of parHament, for so it was not in the time of 
King Edward the fourth. But by this way he raised ex- 5 
ceeding great sums. Insomuch as the city of London, in 
^hose days, contributed nine thousand pounds and better ; 
and that chiefly levied upon the wealthier sort. There is 
a tradition of a dilemma^ that bishop Morton the Chan- 
cellor used, to raise up the benevolence to higher rates; 10 
and some called it his fork, and some his crutch. For he 
hg.d couched an article in the instructions to the commis- 
sioners who were to levy the benevolence ; " That if they 
"met with any that were sparing, they should tell them, 
" that they must needs have, because they laid up ; and if 1 5 
" they were spenders, they must needs have, because it was 
" seen in their port and manner of living." So neither 
kind came amiss. 

This parliament was merely a parliament of war ; for it 
was in substance but a declaration of war against France 20 
and Scotland, with some statutes conducing thereunto : as, 
the severe punishing of mort-pays and keeping back of sol- 
diers' wages in captains : the like severity for the departure 
of soldiers without licence ; strengthening of the common 
law in favour of protections for those that were in the 25 
King's service ; and the setting the gate open and wide 
for men to sell or mortgage their lands, without fines for 
aHenation; to furnish themselves with money for the war; 
and lastly, the voiding of all Scottish men out of England. 
There was also a statute for the dispersing of the stand- 30 
ard of the exchequer throughout England ; thereby to 
size weights and measures ; and two or three more of less 
importance. 



94 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1491 

After the parliament was broken up, wliich lasted not 
long, the King went on with his preparations for the war 
of France ; yet neglected not in the mean time the affairs 
of Maximilian for the quieting of Flanders, and restoring 
5 him to his authority amongst his subjects. For at that 
time the lord of Ravenstein, being not only a subject re- 
belled, but a servant revolted, and so much the more 
malicious and violent, by the aid of Bruges and Gaunt, 
had taken the town and both the castles of Sluice ; as we 

lo said before : and having, by the commodity of the haven, 
gotten together certain ships and barks, fell to a kind of 
piratical trade ; robbing and spoiling, and taking i)risoners 
the ships and vessels of all nations, that passed along that 
coast towards the mart of Antwerp, or into any part of 

15 Brabant, Zealand, or Friesland ; being ever well victual- 
led from Picardy, besides the commodity of victuals from 
Sluice, and the country adjacent, and the avails of his own 
prizes. The French assisted him still under-hand ; and 
he likewise, as all men do that have been of both sides, 

20 thought himself not safe, except he depended upon a third 
person. 

There was a small town some two miles from Bruges 
towards the sea, called Dam ; which was a fort and ap- 
proach to Bruges ; and had a relation also to Sluice. This 

25 town the King of the Romans had attempted often, not for 
any worth of the town in itself, but because it might choke 
Bruges, and cut it off from the sea, and ever failed. But 
therewith the duke of Saxony came down into Flanders, 
taking upon him the person of an umpire, to compose 

JO things between Maximilian and his subjects ; but being, in- 
deed, fast and assured to Maximilian. Upon this pretext 
of neutrality and treaty, he repaired to Bruges ; desiring 
• of the states of Bruges, to enter peaceably into their town, 



1491] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 95 

with a retinue of some number of men of arms fit for his 
estate ; being somewhat the more, as he said, the better to 
guard him in a country that was up in arms : and bearing 
them in hand, that he was to communicate with them of 
divers matters of great importance for their good. Which ^ 
having obtained of them, he sent his carriages and har- 
bingers before him, to provide his lodging. So that his 
men of war entered the city in good array, but in peaceable 
manner, and he followed. They that went before inquired 
still for inns and lodgings, as if they would have rested 10 
there all night ; and so went on till they came to the gate 
that leadeth directly towards Dam ; and they of Bruges 
only gazed upon them, and gave them passage. The cap- 
tains and inhabitants of Dam also suspected no harm from 
any that passed through Bruges ; and discovering forces 1 5 
afar off, supposed they had been some succours that were 
come from their friends, knowing some dangers towards 
them. And so perceiving nothing but well till it was too 
late, suffered them to enter their town. By which kind of 
sleight, rather than stratagem, the town of Dam was taken, 20 
and the town of Bruges shrewdly blocked up, whereby they 
took great discouragement. 

The duke of Saxony, having won the town of Dam, sent 
immediately to the King to let him know, that it was Sluice 
chiefly, and the lord Ravenstein, that kept the rebellion of 25 
Flanders in life : and that if it pleased the King to besiege 
it by sea, he also would besiege it by land, and so cut out 
the core of those wars. 

The King, willing to uphold the authority of Maximilian, 
the better to hold France in awe, and being likewise sued 30 
unto by his merchants, for that the seas were much infested 
by the barks of the lord Ravenstein ; sent straightways 
Sir Edward Poynings, a valiant man, and of good service, 



96 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1492 

with twelve ships, well furnished with soldiers and artillery, 
to clear the seas, and to besiege Sluice on that part. The 
Englishmen did not only coop up the lord Ravenstein, that 
he stirred not, and likewise hold in strait siege the maritime 
5 jjart of the town ; but also assailed one of the castles, and 
renewed the assault so for twenty days' space, issuing still 
out of their ships at the ebb, as they made great slaughter 
of them of the castle ; who continually fought with them 
to repulse them, though of the English part also Were 

10 slain a brother of the earl of Oxford's, and some fifty 
more. 

But the siege still continuing more and more strait, and 
both the castles, which were the principal strength of the 
town, being distressed, the one by the duke of Saxony, and 

1 5 the other by the English ; and a bridge of boats, which the 
lord Ravenstein had made between both castles, whereby 
succours and relief might pass from the one to the other, 
being on a night set on fire by the English ; he despairing 
to hold the town, yielded, at the last, the castles to the 

2 EngHsh, and the town to the duke of Saxony, by compo- 
sition. Which done, the duke of Saxony and Sir Edward 
Poynings treated with them of Bruges, to submit themselves 
to Maximilian their lord ; which after some time they did, 
paying, in some good part, the charge of the war, whereby 

25 the Almains and foreign succours were dismissed. The 
example of Bruges other of the revolted towns followed; 
so that Maximilian grew to be out of danger, but, as his 
manner was to handle matters, never out of necessity. And 
Sir Edward Poynings, after he had continued at Sluice some 

30 good while till all things were settled, returned unto the 
King, being then before Boulogne. 

Somewhat about this time came letters from Ferdinando 
and Isabella, King and Queen of Spain; signifying the 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. 97 

linal conquest of Granada from the Moors ; which action, 
in itself so worthy, King Ferdinando, whose manner was 
never to lose any virtue for the shewing, had expressed and 
displayed in his letters at large, with all the particularities 
and religious punctos and ceremonies, that were obsei"ved 5 
in the receplion of that city and kingdom: shewing amongst 
other things, that the King would not by any means in 
person enter the city, until he had first aloof seen the cross 
set up upon the greater tower of Granada, whereby it be- 
came Christian ground. That likewise, before he would 10 
enter, he did homage to God above, pronouncing by an 
herald from the height of that tower, that he did acknow- 
ledge to have recovered that kingdom by the help of God 
Almighty, and the glorious Virgin, and the virtuous Apostle 
Saint James, and the holy father Innocent the eighth, 15 
together with the aids and services of his prelates, nobles, 
and commons. That yet he stirred not from his camp, 
till he had seen a little army of martyrs, to the number 
of seven hundred and more Christians, that had lived in 
bonds and servitude, as slaves to the Moors, pass before 20 
his eyes, singing a psalm for their redemption ; and that 
he had given tribute unto God, by alms and relief extended 
to them all, for his admission into the city. These things 
were in the letters, with many more ceremonies of a kind 
of holy ostentation. 25 

The King, ever willing to put himself into the consort 
or quire of all religious actions, and naturally affecting 
niucli the King of Spain, as far as one King can affect 
another, partly for his virtues, and partly for a counterpoise 
to France ; upon the receipt of these letters sent all his 30 
nobles and prelates that were about the court, together 
with the mayor and aldermen of London, in great solemn- 
ity to the church of Paul ; there to hear a declaration 
B. H. 7 



q8 history of king HENRY VII. [1492 

from the lord Chancellor, now cardinal. When they were 
assembled, the cardinal, standing upon the uppermost step, 
or half-pace, before the quire, and all the nobles, prelates, 
and governors of the city at the foot of the stairs, made a 

5 speech to them ; letting them know, that they were assem- 
bled in that consecrated place, to sing unto God a new 
song. For that, said he, these many years the Christians 
have not gained new ground or territory upon the Infidels, 
nor enlarged and set farther the bounds of the Christian 

ro world. But this is now done by the prowess and devotion 
of Ferdinando and Isabella, Kings of Spain ; who have, 
to their immortal honour, recovered the great and rich 
kingdom of Granada, and the populous and mighty city 
of the same name, from the Moors, having been in pos- 

15 session thereof by the space of seven hundred years and 
more : for which, this assembly and all Christians are to 
render laud and thanks unto God, and to celebrate this 
noble act of the King of Spain ; who in this is not only 
victorious but apostolical, in the gaining of new provinces 

20 to the Christian faith. And the rather, for that this victory 
and conquest is obtained without much effusion of blood. 
Whereby it is to be hoped, that there shall be gained not 
only new territory, but infinite souls to the church of Christ, 
whom the Almighty, as it seems, would have live to be 

25 converted. Herewithal he did relate some of the most 

memorable particulars of the war and victory. And after 

his speech ended, the whole assembly went solemnly in 

procession, and Te Deiim was sung. • 

Immediately after the solemnity, the King kept his 

30 May-day at his palace of Shene, now Richmond. Where, 
to warm the blood of his nobility and gallants against the 
war, he kept great triumphs of jousting and tourney, during 
all that month. Jn which space it so fell out, that Sir James 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI7. 99 

Parker, and Hugh Vaughan, one of the King's gentlemen 
ushers, having had a controversy touching certain arms that 
the king at arms had given Vaughan, were appointed to run 
some courses one against another. And by accident of a 
faulty helmet that Parker had on, he was stricken into the 5 
mouth at the first course, so that his tongue was borne unto 
the hinder part of his head, in such sort, that he died pre- 
sently upon the place. Which, because of the controversy 
precedent, and the death that followed, was accounted 
amongst the vulgar as a combat or trial of right. The King 10 
towards the end of this summer, having put his forces, 
wherewith he meant to invade France, in readiness, but so 
as they were not yet met or mustered together, sent 
Ursvvick, now made his almoner, and Sir John Riseley, to 
Maximilian, to let him know that he was in arms, ready to 1 5 
pass the seas into France, and did but expect to hear from 
him, when and where he did appoint to join with him, ac- 
cording to his promise made unto him by Countebalt his 
ambassador. 

The English ambassadors having repaired to Maximilian, 20 
did find his power and promise at a very great distance; he 
being utterly unprovided of men, mone)^, and arms, for any 
such enterprise. For Maximilian, having neither wing to 
fly on, for that his patrimony of Austria was not in his 
hands, his father being then hving, and on the other side, 25 
his matrimonial territories of Flanders being partly in dowry 
to his mother-in-law, and partly not serviceable, in respect 
of the late rebellions \ was thereby destitute of means to 
enter into war. The ambassadors saw this well, but wisely 
thought fit to advertise the King thereof, rather than to re- 30 
turn themselves, till the King's farther pleasure were known; 
the rather, for that Maximilian himself spake as great as 
ever he .die). .J^efore, and entertained them with dilatory 



loo HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1492 

answers: so as the formal part of their ambassage might well 
warrant and require their farther stay. The King hereupon, 
who doubted as much before, and saw through his business 
from the beginning, wrote back to the ambassadors, com- 
5 mending their discretion in not returning, and willing them 
to keep the state wherein they found Maximilian as a secret, 
till they heard farther from him : and meanwhile went on 
with his voyage royal for France, supi)ressing for a time 
this advertisement touching Maximilian's poverty and dis- 

lo ability. 

By this time was drawn together a great and puissant 
army into the city of London ; in which were Thomas mar- 
quis Dorset, Thomas earl of Arundel, Thomas earl of Derb}', 
George earl of Shrewsbury, Kdmond earl of Suftblk, Edward 

15 earl of Devonshire, George earl of Kent, the earl of Essex, 
Thomas earl of Ormond, witli a great number of barons, 
knights, and principal gentlemen ; and amongst them 
Richard Thomas, much noted for the brave troops he 
brought out of Wales. The army rising in the whole to the 

20 number of five and twenty thousand foot, and sixteen hun- 
dred horse; over which the King, constant in his accus- 
tomed trust and employment, made Jasper duke of Bedford 
and John earl of Oxford generals under his own person. 
The ninth of September, in the eighth year of his reign, he 

25 departed from Greenwich towards the sea; all men wonder- 
ing that he took that season, being so near winter, to begin 
the war ; and some thereupon gathering, it was a sign that 
the war would not be long. Nevertheless the King gave 
out the contrary, thus ; " That he intending not to make a 

30 '' summer business of it, but a resolute war, without term 
•' prefixed, until he had recovered France ; it skilled not 
" much when he began it, especially having Calais at his 
" back, where he might winter, if the season of the war so 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. loi 

''required." The sixth cf October he embarked at Sand- 
wich ; and the same day took land at Calais, which was the 
rendezvous, where all his forces were assigned to meet. But 
in this his journey towards the sea-side, wherein, for the 
cause that we shall now speak of, he hovered so much the 5 
longer, he had received letters from the lord Cordes, who 
the hotter he was against the English in time of war, had 
the more credit in a negotiation of peace ; and besides was 
held a man open and of good faith. Tn which letters there 
was made an overture of peace from the French King, with 10 
such conditions as were somewhat to the King's taste ; but 
this was carried at the first with wonderful secrecy. The 
King was no sooner come to Calais, but the calm winds of 
peace began to blow. For first, the English ambassadors 
returned out of Flanders from Maximilian, and certified the 15 
King, that he was not to hope for any aid from Maximilian, 
for that he was altogether unprovided. His will was good, 
but he lacked money. And this was made known and 
spread through the army. And although the English were 
therewithal nothing dismayed, and that it be the manner of 20 
soldiers, upon bad news to speak the more bravely; yet 
nevertheless it was a kind of preparative to a peace. In- 
stantly in the neck of this, as the King had laid it, came 
news, that Ferdinando and Isabella, Kings of Spain, had 
concluded a peace with King Charles; and that Charles had 25 
restored unto them the counties of Russignon and Perpig- 
nian, which formerly were mortgaged by John King of Ara- 
gon, Ferdinando's father, unto France, for three hundred 
thousand crowns ; which debt was also upon this peace by 
Charles clearly released. This came also handsomely 1030 
put on the peace ; both because so potent a confederate was 
fallen off, and because it was a fair example of a peace 
bought ; so as the King should not be the sole merchant in 



I02 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1492 

this i)eace. Upon these airs of peace, the King was content 
that the bishop of Exeter, and the lord Daubeney, governor 
of Calais, should give a meeting unto the lord Cordes, for 
the treaty of a peace. But himself nevertheless and his 
5 army, the fifteenth of October, removed from Calais, and in 
four days' march sat him down before Boulogne. 

During this siege of Boulogne, which continued near a 
month, there passed no memorable action, nor accident of 
war ; only Sir John Savage, a valiant captain, was slain, 

lo riding about the walls of the town, to take a view. The 
town was both well fortified and well manned ; yet it was 
distressed, and ready for an assault. Which, if it had been 
given, as was thought, would have cost much blood ; but 
yet the town would have been carried in the end. Mean- 

15 while a peace was concluded by the commissioners, to con- 
tinue for both the Kings' lives. Where there was no article 
of importance; being in effect rather a bargain than a treaty. 
For all things remained as they were, save that there should 
be paid to the King seven hundred forty-five thousand du- 

20 cats in i)resent, for his charges in that journey ; and five and 
twenty thousand crowns yearly, for his charges sustained in 
the aids of the Britons. For which annual, though he had 
Maximilian bound before for those charges ; yet he counted 
the alteration of the hand as much as the principal debt. 

25 And besides, it was left somewhat indefinitely when it 
should determine or expire; which made the English esteem 
it as a tribute carried under fair terms. And the truth is, it 
was paid both to the King and to his son King Henry the 
eighth, longer than it could continue upon any computation 

30 of charges. There was also assigned by the French King, 
unto all the King's principal counsellors, great pensions, be- 
sides rich gifts for the present. Which whether the King 
did permit, to save his own purse from rewards, or to com- 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 103 

municate the envy of a business, that was displeasing to his 
people, was diversely interpreted. For certainly the King 
had no great fancy to own this peace. And therefore a 
little before it was concluded, he had under-hand procured 
some of his best captains and men of war to advise him to a 5 
peace, under their hands, in an earnest manner, in the 
nature of a supplication. But the truth is, this [)eace was 
welcome to both Kings. To Charles, for that it assured 
unto him the possession of Britain, and freed the enterprise 
of Naples. To Henry, for that it filled his cofters ; and that 10 
he foresaw at that time a storm of inward troubles coming 
upon him, which presently after brake forth. But it gave 
no less discontent to the nobility and principal persons of 
the army, who had many of them sold or engaged their 
estates upon the hopes of the war. They stuck not to say, 1 5 
'' That the King cared not to plume his nobility and people, 
"to feather himself." And some made themselves merry 
with that the King had said in parliament : " That after the 
" war was once begun, he doubted not but to make it pay 
"itself;" saying, he had kept promise. 20 

Having risen from Boulogne, he went to Calais, where 
he stayed some time. From whence also he wrote letters, 
which was a courtesy that he sometimes used, to the mayor 
of London, and the aldermen his brethren ; half bragging 
what great sums he had obtained for the peace; knowing 25 
well that full coffers of the King is ever good news to Lon- 
don. And better news it would have been, if their benevo- 
lence had been but a loan. And upon the seventeenth of 
December following he returned to Westminster, where he 
kept his Christmas. 30 

Soon after the King's return, he sent the order of the 
garter to Alphonso duke of Calabria, eldest son to Ferdi- 
nando King of Naples. An honour sought by that Prince 



104 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI J. [1492 

to hold him up in the eyes of the Itahans ; who expecting 
the arms of Charles, made great account of the amity of 
England for a bridle to France. It was received by Al- 
phonso with all the ceremony and pomp that could be 
5 devised, as things use to be carried that are intended for 
opinion. It was sent by Urswick ; upon whom the King 
bestowed this ambassage to help him after many dry em- 
ployments. 

At this time the King began again to be haunted witli 

I o spirits, by the magic and curious arts of the lady Margaret ; 
who raised up the ghost of Richard duke of York, second 
son to King Edward the fourth, to walk and vex the King. 
This was a finer counterfeit stone tlian Lambert Simnel ; 
better done, and worn ui)on greater hands ; being graced 

1 5 after with the wearing of a King of France, and a King of 
Scotland, not of a duchess of Burgundy only. And for 
Simnel, there was not much in him, more than that he was 
a handsome boy, and did not shame his robes. But this 
youth, of whom we are now to speak, was such a mercurial, 

2o as the like hath seldom been known; and could make his 
own part, if at any time he chanced to be out. Wherefore 
this being one of the strangest examples of a personation, 
that ever was in elder or later times ; it deserveth to be dis- 
covered, and related at the full. Although the King's 
manner of shewing things by pieces, and by dark lights, 

25 hath so muffled it, that it hath left it almost as a mystery 
to this day. 

The lady Margaret, whom tlie King's friends called 
Juno, because she was to him as Juno was to ^neas, 
stirrmg both heaven and hell to do him mischief, for a 

30 foundation of her particular practices against him, did 
continually, by all means possible, nourish, maintain, and 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 105 

divulge the flying opinion, that Richard duke of York, 
second son to Edward the fourth, was not murdered in 
the Tower, as was given out, but saved aHve. For that 
those who were employed in that barbarous fact, having 
destroyed the elder brother, were stricken with remorse 5 
and compassion towards the younger, and set him privily 
at liberty to seek his fortune. This lure she cast abroad, 
thinking that this fame and belief, together with the fresh 
example of Lambert Simnel, would draw at one time or 
other some birds to strike upon it. She used likewise a 10 
farther diligence, not committing all to chance : for she 
had some secret espials, like to the Turks' commissioners 
for children of tribute, to look abroad for handsome and 
graceful youths, to make Plantagenets, and dukes of York. 
At the last she did light on one, in whom all things met, 15 
as one would wish, to serve her turn for a counterfeit of 
Richard of York. 

This was Perkin Warbeck, whose adventures we shall 
now describe. For first, the years agreed well. Secondly, 
he was a youth of fine favour and shape. But more than 20 
that, he had such a crafty and bewitching fashion, both to 
move pity, and to induce belief, as Avas like a kind of 
fiiscination and enchantment to those that saw him or 
heard him. Thirdly, he had been from his childhood such 
a wanderer, or, as the King called him, such a land-louper, 25 
as it was extreme hard to hunt out his nest and parents. 
Neither again could any man, by company or conversing 
with him, be able to say or detect well what he was, he 
did so flit from place to place. Lastly, there was a cir- 
cumstance, which is mentioned by one that wrote in the 30 
same time, that is very likely to have made somewhat to 
the matter; which is, that King Edward the fourth was 
his godfather. Which, as it is somewhat suspicious, for a 



io6 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL [1492 

wanton prince to become gossip in so mean a house, and 
might make a man think, that he might indeed have in 
him some base blood of the house of York ; so at the 
least, though that were not, it might give the occasion to 
5 the boy, in being called King Edward's godson, or perhaps 
in sport King Edward's son, to entertain such thoughts into 
his head. For tutor he had none, for ought that appears, 
as Eam.bert Simnel had, until he came unto the lady Mar- 
garet, who instructed him. 

1 o Huis therefore it came to pass : There was a townsman 
of Tournay, that had borne office in that town, whose name 
was John Osbeck, a convert Jew, married to Catharine de 
Faro, whose business drew him to live for a time with 
his wife at London, in King Edward the fourth's days. 

15 During which time he had a son by her, and being known 
in court, the King either out of a religious nobleness, be- 
CcUise he was a convert, or upon some private acquaintance, 
did him the honour to be godfiither to his child, and named 
him Peter. But afterwards proving a dainty and effem.inate 

20 youth, he was commonly called by the diminutive of his 
name, Peter-kin, or Perkin. For as for the name of War- 
beck, it was given him when they did but guess at it, before 
examinations had been taken. But yet he had been so 
much talked on by that name, as it stuck by him after his 

25 true name of Osbeck was known. While he was a young 
child, his parents returned with him to Tournay. Then 
was he placed in a house of a kinsman of his, called John 
Stenbeck, at Antwerp, and so roved up and down between 
Antwerp and Tournay, and other towns of Flanders, for a 

30 good time ; living much in English company, and having 
the English tongue perfect. In which time, being grown a 
comely youth, he was brought by some of the espials of 
the lady Margaret into her presence. Who viewing him 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 107 

well, and seeing that he had a face and personage that 
would bear a noble fortune ; and finding him otherwise of 
a fine spirit and winning behaviour ; thought she had now 
found a curious piece of marble, to carve out an image of 
a duke of York. She kept him by her a great while, but 5 
with extreme secrecy. The while she instructed him by 
many cabinet conferences. First, in princely behaviour 
and gesture ; teaching him how he should keep state, and 
yet with a modest sense of "his misfortunes. Then she 
informed him of all the circumstances and particulars that 10 
concerned the person of Richard duke of York, which he 
was to act; describing unto him the personages, lineaments, 
and features of the King and Queen his pretended parents ; 
and of his brother, sisters, and divers others, that were 
nearest him in his childhood; together with all passages, 15 
some secret, some common, that were fit for a child's 
memory, until the death of King Edward. Then she 
added the particulars of the time from the King's death, 
until he and his brother w^ere committed to the Tower, as 
well during the time he was abroad, as while he was in 20 
sanctuary. As for the times while he was in the Tower, 
and the manner of his brother's death, and his own escape; 
she knew they were things that a very few could control. 
And therefore she taught him only to tell a smooth and 
likely tale of those matters; warning him not to vary from 25 
it. It was agreed likewise between them, what account he 
should give of his peregrination abroad, intermixing many 
things which were true, and such as they knew others could 
testify, for the credit of the rest ; but still making them to 
bang together with the part he w^as to play. She taught 30 
him likewise how to avoid sundry captious and tempting 
questions, which were like to be asked of him. But in 
this she found him of him.self so nimble and shifting, as 



io8 niSJ'ORy OF KING HENRY III. [1492 

she trusted much to his own wit and readiness ; and there- 
fore laboured the less in it. Lastly, she raised his thoughts 
with some present rewards, and farther promises; setting 
before him chiefly the glory and fortune of a crown, if 
5 things went well, and a sure refuge to her court, if the 
worst should fall. After such time as she thought he was 
perfect in his lesson, she began to cast with herself from 
what coast this blazing star should first appear; and at \Vhat 
time. It must be upon the hd^izon of Irel;ind ; for there had 

ro the like meteor strong influence before. The time of the 
apparition to be, when the King should be engaged into a 
war with P>ance. But well she knew, that whatsoever .should 
come from her, would be held suspected. And therefore, 
if he should go oiit of Flanders immediately into Ireland, 

15 ^'^c might be thought to have some hand in it. 'And be- 
sides, the time was not yet ripe ; for that the two Kings 
were then upon terms of peace. Therefore she wheeled 
about ; and to put all suspicion afar off", and loth to keep 
him any longer by her, for that she knew secrets are not 

-o long-lived, she sent him unknown into Portugal, with the 
lady Brampton^ an English lady, that embarked for Por- 
tugal at that time ; with some privado of her own, to have 
an eye upon him, and there he was to remain, and 
to expect her farther directions. In the mean time she 

25 omitted not to prepare things for his better welcome and 
accepting, not only in the kingdom of Ireland, but in the 
court of France. He continued in Portugal about a year ; 
and by that time the King of England called his parliament, 
as hath been said, and declared open war against France. 

30 Now did the sign reign, and the constellation was come, 
under which Perkin should appear. And therefore he was 
straight sent unto by the duchess to go for Ireland, ac- 
cording to the first designment. In Ireland he did arrive 



1492] HISTORY OF KIXG HENRY VII. 109 

at the town of Cork. When he was thither come, his own 
tale was, when he made his confession afterwards, that the 
Irishmen, finding him in some good clothes, came flocking 
about him, and bare him down that he was the duke of 
Clarence that had been there before. And after, that he 5 
was Richard the third's base son. And lastly, that he was 
Richard duke of York, second son to Edward the fourth. 
But that he, for his part, renounced all these things, and 
offered to swear upon the holy Evangelists, that he was 
no such man; till at last they forced it upon him, and 10 
bade him fear nothing, and so forth. But the truth is, that 
immediately upon his coming into Ireland, he took uj)on 
him the said person of the duke of York, and drew unto 
him complices and partakers by all the means he could 
devise. Insomuch as he wrote his letters unto the earls of 15 
Desmond and Kildare, to come in to his aid, and be of 
his party ; the originals of which letters are yet extant. 

Somewhat before this time, the duchess had also gained 
unto her a near servant of King Henry's own, one Stephen 
Frion, his secretary for the French tongue ; an active man, 20 
but turbulent and discontented. This Frion had fled over 
to Charles the French King, and put himself into his ser- 
vice, at such time as he began to be in open enmity with 
the King. Now King Charles, when he understood of the 
person and attempts of Perkin, ready of himself to embrace 25 
all advantages against the King of England, instigated by 
Frion, and formerly prepared by the lady Margaret, forth- 
with despatched one Lucas and this Frion, in the nature of 
ambassadors, to Perkin, to advertise him of the King's good 
inclination to him, and that he was resolved to aid him to 30 
recover his right against King Henry, an usurper of England, 
and an enemy of France ; and wished him to come over 
unto him at Paris. Perkin thought himself in heasen now 



iro ///STOAT OF K/NG HENRY VI/. [1492 

that he was invited by so great a King in so honourable a 
manner. And imparting unto his friends in Ireland for their 
encouragement, how fortune called him, and what great 
hopes he had, sailed presently into France. When he was 
5 come to the court of France, the King received him with 
great honour ; saluted, and styled him by the name of the 
duke of York ; lodged him, and accommodated him in great 
state. And the better to give him the representation and 
the countenance of a Prince, assigned him a guard for his 

lo ])crson, whereof the lord Congresall was captain. The cour- 
tiers likewise, though it be ill mocking with the French, 
applied themselves to their King's bent, seeing there was 
reason of state for it. At the same time there repaired unto 
Perkin divers Englishmen of quality ; Sir George Nevile, 

15 Sir John Taylor, and about one hundred more; and amongst 
the rest, this Stephen Frion, of whom we spake, who fol- 
lowed his lortune both then and for a long time after, and 
was indeed his principal counsellor and instrument in all his 
proceedings. But all this on the French King's part was 

30 but a trick, the better to bow King Henry to peace. And 
therefore, upon the first grain of incense, that was sacrificed 
upon the altar of peace at Boulogne, Perkin was smoked 
away. Yet would not the French King deliver him up to 
King Henry, as he was laboured to do, for his honour's 

25 sake, but warned him away, and dismissed him. And 
Perkin on his part was as ready to be gone, doubting he 
might be caught up under-hand. He therefore took his way 
into Flanders, unto the duchess of Burgundy; pretending 
that having been variously tossed by fortune, he directed his 

30 course thither as to a safe harbour: no ways taking know- 
ledge that he had ever been there before, but as if that had 
been his first address. The duchess, on the other part, 
made it as new and strange to see him ; pretending, at the 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. iii 

first, that she was taught and made wise by the example of 
Lambert Simnel, how she did admit of any counterfeit stuff; 
though even in that, she said, she was not fully satisfied. 
She pretended at the first, and that was ever in the presence 
of others, to pose him and sift him, thereby to try whether 5 
he were indeed the very duke of York or no. But seeming 
to receive full satisfaction by his answers, she then feigned 
herself to be transported with a kind of astonishment, mixt 
of joy and wonder, at his miraculous deliverance; receiving 
him as if he were risen from death to life : and inferring, 10 
tliat God, who had in such wonderful manner preserved 
him from death, did likewise reserve him for some great 
and prosperous fortune. As for his dismission out of 
France, th^y interpreted it not, as if he were detected or 
neglected for a counterfeit deceiver ; but contrariwise that it 1 5 
did shew manifestly unto the world, that he was some great 
matter; for that it was his abandoning that, in effect, made 
the peace ; being no more but the sacrificing of a poor dis- 
tressed Prince, unto the utility and ambition of two mighty 
monarchs. Neither was Perkin, for his part, wanting to 20 
liimself, either in gracious or princely behaviour, or in ready 
and apposite answers, or in contenting and caressing those 
that did apyjly themselves unto him, or in pretty scorn and 
disdain to those that seemed to doubt of him ; but in all 
things did notably acquit himself; insomuch as it was gene- 25 
rally believed, as well amongst great persons, as amongst 
the vulgar, that he was indeed duke Richard. Nay, himself, 
with long and continual counterfeiting, and with oft telling 
a lie, was turned by habit almost into the thing he seemed 
to be; and from a liar to a believer. The duchess therefore, 30 
as in a case out of doubt, did him all princely honour, 
calling him always by the name of her nephew, and giving 
him the delicate title of the white rose of England ; and 



112 HlSrORY OF KING HENRY VIJ. [1492 

appointed him a guard of thirty persons, halberdiers, clad 
in a party-coloured livery of murrey and blue, to attend his 
person. Her court likewise, and generally the Dutch and 
strangers, in their usage towards him, expressed no less 

5 respect. 

The news hereof came blazing and thundering over into 
England, that the duke of York was sure aHve. As for the 
name of Perkin \V^arbeck, it was not at that time come to 
light, but all the news ran upon the duke of York; that he 

lo had been entertained in Ireland, bought and sold in France, 
and was now plainly avowed, and in great honour in Flan- 
ders. These fames took hold of divers; in some upon dis- 
content; in some upon ambition; in some upon levity and 
desire of change ; in some few upon conscience, and belief 

I r but in most upon simplicity ; ami in divers, out of depend- 
ence upon some of the better sort, who did in secret favour 
and nourish these bruits. And it was not long ere these 
rumours of novelty had begotten others of scandal and 
murmur against the King and his government ; taxing him 

2o for a great tax-er of his people, and discountenancer of his 
nobility. The loss of Britain, and the peace with France, 
were not forgotten. But chiefly they fell upon the wrong 
that he did his Queen, in that he did not reign in her right. 
Wherefore they said, that God had now brought to Hght a 

25 masculine branch of the house of York, tliat would not be 
at his courtesy, howsoever he did depress his poor lady. 
And yet, as it fareth in the things which are current with 
the multitude, and which they affect, these fames grew so 
general, as the authors were lost in the generality of speakers. 

30 They being like running weeds, that have no certain root ; 
or like footings up and down, impossible to be traced : but 
after a while these ill humours drew to an head, and settled 
secretlv in some eminent i)ersons ; which were Sir Willianl 



1492] irrSTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 113 

Stanley lord cliamberlain of the King's household, the lord 
Fitzwalter, Sir Simon Mountfort, and Sir Thomas Thwaites. 
These entered into a secret conspiracy to flivour duke 
Richard's title. Nevertheless none engaged their fortunes 
in this business openly, but two; Sir Robert Clifford, and 5 
master WilHam Barley, who sailed over into Flanders, sent 
indeed from the party of the conspirators here, to understand 
the truth of those things that passed there, and not without 
some help of moneys from hence ; provisionally to be deli- 
vered, if they found and were satisfied, that there was truth 10 
in these pretences. The person of Sir Robert Clifford, 
being a gentleman of f.ime and family, was extremely wel- 
come to the lady Margaret. Who after she had conference 
with him, brought him to the sight of Perkin, with whom he 
had often speech and discourse. So that in the end, won 15 
cither by the duchess to affect, or by Perkin to believe, he 
wrote back into England, that he knew the person of Richard 
duke of York, as well as he knew his own ; and that this 
young man was undoubtedly he. By this means all things 
grew prepared to revolt and sedition here, and the con- 20 
spiracy came to have a correspondence between Flanders 
and England. 

The King on his [)art was not asleep ; but to arm or levy 
forces yet, he thought would but shew fear, and do this idol 
too much worship. Nevertheless the ports he did shut up, 25 
or at least kept a watch on them, that none should pass to 
or fro that was suspected : but for the rest, he chose to work 
by countermine. His purposes were two; the one to lay 
open the abuse; the other, to break the knot of the conspi- 
rators. To detect the abuse, there were but two ways ; the 30 
first, to make it manifest to the world that the duke of York 
was indeed murdered ; the other, to prove that were he 
dead or alive, yet Perkin was a counterfeit. For the first, 

L. H. 8 



114 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1492 

thus it stood. There were but four persons that could speak 
upon knowledge to the murder of the duke of York ; Sir 
James Tirrel, the employed man from King Richard, John 
Dighton and Miles Forrest his servants, the two butchers or 
5 tormentors, and the priest of the tower that buried them. 
Of which four, Miles Forrest and the priest were dead, and 
there remained alive only Sir James Tirrel and John 
Dighton. These two the King caused to be committed to 
the Tower, and examined touching the manner of the death 

lo of the two innocent princes. They agreed both in a tale, as 
the King gave out to this effect : That King Richard having 
directed his warrant for the putting of them to death, to 

• Brackenbury the lieutenant of the Tower, was by him re- 
fused. Whereupon the King directed his warrant to Sir 

15 James Tirrel, to receive the keys of the Tower from the lieu- 
tenant, for the space of a night, for the King's special 
service. That Sir James Tirrel accordingly repaired to the 
Tower by night, attended by his two servants aforenamed, 
whom he had chosen for that purpose. That himself stood 

20 at the stair foot, and sent these two villains to execute the 
murder. That they smothered them in their bed ; and, that 
done, called up their master to see their naked dead bodies, 
which they had laid forth. That they were buried under the 
stairs, and some stones cast upon them. That when the re- 

25 port was made to King Richard, that his will was done, he 
gave Sir James Tirrel great thanks, but took exception to the 
place of their burial, being too base for them that were 
King's children. Whereupon, another night, by the King's 
warrant renewed, their bodies were removed by the priest of 

30 the Tower, and buried by him in some place, which, by 
means of the priest's death soon after, could not be known. 
Thus much was then delivered abroad, to be the effect of 
those examinations : but the King, nevertheless, made no 



1492] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 115 

use of them in any of his declarations ; whereby, as it seems, 
those examinations left the business somewhat perplexed. 
And as for Sir James Tirrel, he was soon after beheaded in 
the Tower-yard for other matters of treason. But John 
Dighton, who, it seemeth, spake best for the King, was forth- 5 
with set at liberty, and was the principal means of divulging 
this tradition. Therefore this kind of proof being left so 
naked, the King used the more diligence in the latter, for 
the tracing of Perkin, To th^s purpose he sent abroad into 
several parts, and especially into Flanders, divers secret and 10 
nimble scouts and spies, some feigning themselves to fly 
over unto Perkin, and to adhere unto him ; and some under 
other pretences, to learn, search, and discover all the circum- 
stances and particulars of Perkin's parents, birth, person, 
travels up and down; and in brief, to have a journal, as it 15 
were, of his life and doings. He furnished these his em- 
ployed men liberally with money, to draw on and reward 
intelligences ; giving them also in charge, to advertise con- 
tinually what they found, and nevertheless still to go on. 
And ever as one advertisement and discovery called up 20 
another, he employed other new men, where the business 
did require it. Others he employed in a more special na- 
ture and trust, to be his pioneers in the main countermine. 
These were directed to insinuate themselves into the fami- 
liarity and confidence of the principal persons of the party 25 
in Flanders, and so to learn what associates they had, and 
correspondents, either here in England, or abroad; and how 
far every one engaged, and what new ones they meant after- 
wards to try or board. And as this for the persons, so for 
the actions themselves, to discover to the bottom, as they 30 
could, the utmost of Perkin's and the conspirators, their 
intentions, hopes, and practices. These latter best-be-trust 
spies had some of them farther instructions, to practise 

8—2 



ii6 nrSTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1493 

and draw off the best friends and servants of Perkin, by- 
making remonstrance to them, how weakly his enterprise 
and hopes were built, and with how prudent and potent a 
King they had to deal ; and to reconcile them to the King, 
5 with promise of pardon and good conditions of reward. 
And, above the rest, to assail, sap, and work into the con- 
stancy of Sir Robert Clifford; and to win him, if they could, 
being the man that knew most of their secrets, and who 
being won away, would most appal and discourage the rest, 

10 and in a manner break the knot. 

There is a strange tradition ; that the King, being lost 
in a wood of suspicions, and not knowing whom to trust, 
had both intelligence with the confessors and chaplains of 
divers great men; and for the better credit of his espials 

15 abroad with the contrary side, did use to have them cursed 
at Paul's, by name, amongst the bead-roll of the King's ene- 
mies, according to the custom of those times. These espials 
plied their charge so roundly, as the King had" an anatomy 
of Perkin alive; and was likewise well informed of the par- 

20 ticular correspondent conspirators in England, and many 
other mysteries were revealed ; and Sir Robert Clifford in 
especial won to be assured to the King, and industrious and 
officious for his service. The King therefore, receiving a 
rich return of his diligence, and great satisfaction touching a 

25 number of particulars, first divulged and spread abroad the 
imposture and juggling of Perkin's person and travels, with 
the circumstances thereof, throughout the realm : not by 
proclamation, because things were yet in examination, and 
so might receive the more or the less, but by court-fames, 

30 which commonly print better than printed proclamations. 
Then thought he it also time to send an ambass^ge unto 
archduke Philip into Flanders, for the abandoning and 
dismissing of Perkin. Herein he employed Sir Edward 



1493] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 117 

Poynings, and Sir William Warham doctor of the canon law. 
The archduke was then young, and governed by his council : 
before whom the ambassadors had audience: and doctor 
Warham spake in this manner : 

"MY lords, the King our master is very sorry, that 5 
" England and your country here of Flanders, having been 
"counted as man and wife for so long time; now this coun- 
" try of all others should be the stage, where a base counter- 
"feit should play the part of a King of England; not only 
"to his grace's disquiet and dishonour, but to the scorn and 10 
" reproach of all sovereign Princes. To counterfeit the dead 
"image of a King in his coin, is an high offence by all laws; 
'' but to counterfeit the living image of a King in his i)erson, 
" exceedeth all falsifications, except it should be that of a 
" Mahomet, or an Antichrist, that counterfeit divine honour. 15 
" The King hath too great an opinion of this sage council, 
" to think that any of you is caught with this fable, though 
" way may be given by you to the passion of some, the thing 
" in itself is so improbable. To set testimonies aside of the 
" death of duke Richard, which the King hath upon record, 20 
" plain and infallible, because they may be thought to be in 
" the King's own power, let the thing testify for itself Sense 
"and reason no power can command. Is it possible, trow 
" you, that King Richard should damn his soul, and foul his 
"name with so abominable a murder, and yet not mend his 25 
" case ? Or do you think, that men of blood, that were his 
" instruments, did turn to pity in the midst of their execu- 
"tion? Whereas in ciuel and savage beasts, and men also, 
"the first draught of blood doth yet make them more fierce 
" and enraged. Do you not know, that the bloody execu- t,^ 
" tioners of tyrants do go to such errands with an halter 
"about their neck; so that if they perform not, they are sure 
"to die for it? And do von think that these men would 



ii8 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1493 

'■'■■ hazard their own hves, for sparing another's ? Admit they 
" should have saved him ; what should they have done with 
'' him ? Turn him into London streets, that the watchmen, 
" or any passenger that should light upon him, might carry 

5 " him before a justice, and so all come to light ? Or should 
''they have kept him by them secretly? That surely would 
"have required a great deal of care, charge, and continual 
"fears. But, my lords, I labour too much in a clear busi- 
"ness. The King is so wise, and hath so good friends 

ro "abroad, as now he knoweth duke I^erkin from his cradle. 
" And because he is a great Prince, if you have any good 
" poet here, he can help him with notes to write his life; and 
" to parallel him with Lambert Simnel, now the King's fal- 
" coner. And therefore, to speak plainly to your lordships, 

, r " it is the strangest thing in the world, that the lady Mar- 
" garet, excuse us if we name her, whose malice to the King 
" is both causeless and endless, should now when she is old, 
"at the time when other women give over child-bearing, 
" bring forth two such monsters ; being not the births of 

2o"uine or ten months, but of many years. And whereas 
" other natural mothers bring forth children weak, and not 
" able to help themselves ; she bringeth forth tall striplings, 
" able soon after their coming into the world to bid battle 
" to mighty Kings. IMy lords, we stay unwillingly upon this 

2C "part. We would to God, that lady would once taste the 
"joys which God Almighty doth serve up unto her, in 
" beholding her niece to reign in such honour, and with so 
" much royal issue, which she might be pleased to account 
" as her own. The King's request unto the archduke, and 

30 "your lordships, might be; that according to the example 
" of King Charles, who hath already discarded him, you 
" would banish this unworthy fellow out of your dominions. 
" But because the King may justly expect more from an 



1493] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 119 

"ancient confederate, than from a new reconciled enemy, 
"he maketh his request unto you to deUver him up into 
"his hands: pirates, and impostors of this sort, being fit to 
" be accounted the common enemies of mankind, and no 
"ways to be protected by the law of nations." c 

After some time of deliberation, the ambassadors received 
this short answer : 

"THAT the archduke, for the love of King Henry, 
" would in no sort aid or assist the pretended duke, but in 
"all things conserve the amity he had with the King: But 10 
" for the duchess dowager, she was absolute in the lands 
" of her dowry, and that he could not let her to dispose of 
" her own." 

The King, upon the return of the ambassadors, was 
nothing satisfied with this answer. For well he knew, that 15 
a patrimonial dowry carried no part of sovereignty or 
command of forces. Besides, the ambassadors told him 
plainly, that they saw the duchess had a great party in the 
archduke's council ; and that howsoever it was carried in 
a course of connivance, yet the archduke underhand gave 20 
aid and furtherance to Perkin. Wherefore, partly out of 
courage, and partly out of policy, the King forthwith 
banished all Flemings, as well their persons as their wares, 
out of his kingdom; commanding his subjects likewise, and 
by name his merchants adventurers, which had a resiance 25 
at Antwerp, to return ; translating the mart, wliich com- 
monly followed the English cloth, unto Calais ; and em- 
barred also all farther trade for the future. This the King 
did, being sensible in point of honour, not to suffer a 
pretender to the crov/n of England to affront him so 30 
near at hand, and he to keep terms of friendship with the 
country where he did set up. But he had also a farther 
reach : for that he knew well, that the subjects of Flanders 



I20 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1493 

drew so great commodity from the trade of England, as by 
this embargo they would soon wax weary of Perkin ; and 
that the tumults of Flanders had been so late and fresh, as 
it was no time for the Prince to displease the people. Never 

5 theless for form's sake, by way of requital, the archduke 
(lid likewise banish the English out of Flanders ; which in 
effect was done to his hand. 

The King being well advertised, that Perkin did more 
trust upon friends and partakers within the realm than 

I o upon foreign arms, thought it behoved him to apply the 
remedy where the disease lay ; and to proceed with severity 
against some of the principal conspirators here within 
the realm ; thereby to purge the ill humours in Eng- 
land, and to cool the hopes in Inlanders. Wherefore 

15 he caused to be apprehended, almost at an instant, 
John Ratclifte, lord Fitzwalter, Sir Simon Mountfort, Sir 
'J'homas Thwaites, William Daubeney, Pvobert Ratclifte, 
Thomas Cressenor, and Thomas Astwood. All these were 
arraigned, convicted, and condemned for high-treason, in 

20 adhering and promising aid to Perkin. Of these the lord 
Fitzwalter was conveyed to Calais, and there kept in hold, 
and in hope of life, until soon after, either impatient or 
betrayed, he dealt with his keeper to have escaped, and 
tliereupon was beheaded. But Sir Simon Mountfort, Robert 

25 Ratclifife, and William Daubeney, were beheaded imme- 
diately after their condemnation. The rest were pardoned, 
together with many others, clerks and laics, amongst which 
were two Dominican friars, and William Worsley dean of 
Paul's ; which latter sort passed examination, but came not 

30 to public trial. 

The lord chamberlain at that time was not touched ; 
whether it were that the King would not stir too many 
humours at once, but, after the manner of good physicians, 



1494] HISTORY GF KING HENRY VI I. 121 

l)urge the head last ; or that Clifford, from whom most of 
these discoveries came, reserved that piece for his own 
coming over ; signifying only to the King in the mean 
time, that he doubted there were some greater ones in the 
business, whereof he would give the King farther account 5 
when he came to his presence. 

Upon Allhallows-day even, being now the tenth year of 
the King's reign, the King's second son Henry was created 
duke of York ; and as well the duke, as divers others, 
noblemen, knights-bachelors, and gentlemen of quality, 10 
were made knights of the Bath according to the ceremony. 
Upon the morrow after twelfth-day, the King removed from 
Westminster, where he had kept his Christmas, to the 
Tower of London. This he did as soon as he had ad- 
vertisement that Sir Robert Clifford, in whose bosom or 15 
budget most of Perkin's secrets were laid up, was come 
into England. And the place of the Tower was chosen to 
that end, that if Clifford should accuse any of the great 
ones, they might without suspicion, or noise, or sending 
abroad of warrants, be presently attached ; the court and 20 
prison being within the cincture of one wall. After a day 
or two, the King drew unto him a selected council, and 
admitted Clifford to his presence ; who first fell down at 
his feet, and in all humble manner craved the King's 
l)ardon ; which the King then granted though he were in- 25 
deed secretly assured of his life before. Then commanded 
to tell his knowledge, he did amongst many others, of 
himself, not interrogated, impeach Sir William Stanley, the 
lord chamberlain of the King's household. 

The King seemed to be much amazed at the naming 30 
of this lord, as if he had heard the news of some strange 
and fearful i)rodigy. To hear a man that had done him 
service of so high a nature, as to save his life, and set the 



122 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1494 

crown upon his head ; a man, that enjoyed, by his favour 
and advancement, so great a fortune both in honour and 
riches ; a man, that was tied unto him in so near a band 
of aUiance, his brother having married the King's mother; 
5 and lastly, a man, to whom he had committed the trust of 
his person, in making him his chamberlain : that this man, 
no ways disgraced, no ways discontent, no ways put in 
fear, should be false unto him. Clifford was required to 
say over again and again the particulars of his accusation ; 

ro being warned, that in a matter so unlikely, and that con- 
cerned so great a servant of the King's, he shoukl not in 
any wise go too far. But the King finding that he did 
sadly and constantly, without hesitation or varying, antl 
with those civil protestations that were fit, stand to that 

^5 that he had said, offering to justify it upon his soul and 
life ; he caused him to be removed. And after he had not 
a little bemoaned himself unto his council there present, 
gave order that wSir William Stanley should be restrained 
in his own chamber where he lay before, in the square 

2o tower: and the next day he was examined by the lords. 
Upon his examination he denied little of that wherewith 
he was charged, nor endeavoured much to excuse or ex- 
tenuate his fault : so that, not very wisely, thinking to 
make his oftence less by confession, he made it enough 

25 for condemnation. It was conceived, that he trusted 
much to his former merits, and the interest that his bro- 
ther had in the King. But those helps were over-weighed 
by divers things that made against him, and were pre- 
dominant in the King's nature and mind. First, an over- 

30 merit ; for convenient merit, unto which reward may easily 
reach, doth best with Kings. Next the sense of his power; 
for the King thought, that he that could set him up, was 
the more dangerous to pull him down. Thirdly, the 



149!] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 123 

glimirering of a confiscation ; for he was the richest sub- 
ject for value in the kingdom : there being found in his 
castle of Holt forty thousand marks in ready money and 
plate, besides jewels, household-stuff, stocks upon his 
grounds, and other personal estate exceeding great. And 5 
for his revenue in land and fee, it was three thousand 
pounds a year of old rent, a great matter in those times. 
Lastly, the nature of the time ; for if the King had been 
out of fear of his own estate, it was not unlike he would 
have spared his life. But the cloud of so great a rebellion 10 
hanging over his head, made him work sure. Wherefore 
after some six weeks' distance of time, which the King did 
honourably interpose, both to give space to his brothers 
intercession, and to shew to the world that he had a con- 
flict with himself what he should do; he was arraigned of 15 
high-treason, and condemned, and presently after beheaded. 
Yet is it to this day left but in dark memory, both what 
the case of this noble person was, for which he suffered ; 
and what likewise was the ground and cause of his defec- 
tion, and the alienation of his heart from the King. His case 20 
was said to be this ; That in discourse between Sir Robert 
Clifford and him he had said, " That if he were sure that 
" that young man were King Edward's son, he would never 
" bear arms against him." This case seems somewhat an 
hard case, both in respect of the conditional, and in respect 25 
of the other words. But for the conditional, it seemeth the 
judges of that time, who were learned men, and the three 
chief of them of the privy-council, thought it was a dan- 
gerous thing to admit ijs and andsy to (jualify words of 
treason ; whereby every man might express his malice, 30 
and blanch his danger. And it was like to the case, in 
the following times, of Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of 
Kent ; who had said, " That if King Henry the eighth did 



124 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [149| 

" not take Catharine his wife again, he should be deprived 
" of his crown, and die the death of a dog." And infinite 
cases may be put of hke nature; which, it seemeth, the 
grave judges taking into consideration, would not admit of 
5 treasons upon condition. And as for the positive words, 
" That he would not bear arms against King Edward's 
"son;" though the words seem calm, yet it was a plain 
and direct over-ruling of the King's title, either by the line 
of Lancaster, or by act of parliament : which, no doubt, 

lo pierced the King more, than if Stanley had charged his 
lance upon him in the field. For if Stanley would hold 
that opinion, that a son of King Edward had still the 
better right, he being so principal a person of authority 
and favour about the King, it was to teach all England to 

15 say as much. And therefore, as those times were, that 
speech touched the quick. But some writers do put this 
out of doubt ; for they say that Stanley did expressly pro- 
mise to aid Perkin, and sent him some help of treasure. 
Now for the motive of his falling ofY from the King; 

20 it is true, that at Bosworth-field the King was beset, and 
in a manner inclosed round about by the troops of King 
Richard, and in manifest danger of his hfe; when this 
Stanley was sent by his brother, with three thousand men 
to his rescue, which he performed so, that King Richard 

25 was slain upon the place. So as the condition of mortal 
men is not capable of a greater benefit, than the King 
received by the hands of Stanley; being like the benefit 
of Christ, at once to save and crown. For which service 
the King gave him great gifts, made him his counsellor 

30 and chamberlain ; and, somewhat contrary to his nature, had 
winked at the great spoils of Bosworth-field, which came 
almost wholly to this man's hands, to his infinite enriching. 
Yet nevertheless, blown up with the conceit of his merit. 



149|J HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. 125 

he did not think he had received good measure from the 
King, at least not pressing down and running over, as he 
expected. And his ambition was so exorbitant and un- 
bounded, as he became suitor to the King for the earldom 
of Chester : which ever being a kind of appendage to the 5 
principality of Wales, and using to go to the King's son, 
his suit did not only end in a denial, but in a distaste : 
the King i)erceiving thereby, that his desires were intem- 
perate, and his cogitations vast and irregular, and that his 
former benefits were but cheap, and lightly regarded by him. 10 
Wherefore the King began not to brook him well. And 
as a little leaven of new distaste doth commonly sour the 
whole lump of former merits, the King's wit began now to sug- 
gest unto his passion, that Stanley at Bosworth-field, though 
he came time enough to save his life, yet he stayed long 15 
enough to endanger it. But yet having no matter against 
him, he continued him in his places until this his fall. 

After him was made lord chamberlain Giles lord Dau- 
beney, a man of great sufficiency and valour ; the more 
because he was gentle and moderate. 20 

There was a common opinion, that Sir Robert Clifford, 
who now was become the state informer, was from the 
beginning an emissary and spy of the King's ; and that he 
fled over into Flanders with his consent and privity. But 
this is not probable ; both because he never recovered that 25 
degree of grace, which he had with the King before his 
going over; and chiefly, for that the discovery which he 
had made touching the lord chamberlain, which was his 
great service, grew not from anything he learned abroad, 
for that he knew it well before he went. 30 

These executions, and especially that of the lord 
chamberlain, which was the chief strength of the party, 
and by means of Sir Robert Clifford, who was the most 



126 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. [149| 

inward man of trust amongst them, did extremely quail 
the design of Perkin and his complices, as well through 
discouragement as distrust. So that they were now, like 
sand without lime, ill bound together; especially as many 

5 as were English, who were at a gaze, looking strange one 
upon another, not knowing who was faithful to their side; 
but thinking, that the King, what with his baits, and what 
with his nets, would draw them all unto him that were any 
thing worth. And indeed it came to pass, that divers came 

lo away by the thread, sometimes one, and sometimes another. 
Barley, that was joint commissioner with Clifford, did hold 
out one of the longest, till Perkin was far worn ; yet made 
his peace at the length. But the fall of this great man, 
being in so high authority and favour, as was thought, with 

15 the King; and the manner of carriage of the business, as 
if there had been secret inquisition upon him for a great 
time before ; and the cause for which he suffered, which 
was little more than for saying in effect, that the title of 
York was better than the title of Lancaster ; which was 

20 the case almost of every man, at the least in opinion, was 
matter of great terror amongst all the King's servants and 
subjects ; insomuch as no man almost thought himself 
secure, and men durst scarce commune or talk one with 
another, but there was a general diffidence every where : 

25 which nevertheless made the King rather more absolute 
tlian more safe. For " bleeding inwards, and shut vapours, 
" strangle soonest, and oppress most." 

Hereupon presently came forth swarms and volleys of 
libels, which are the gusts of liberty of speech restrained, 

30 and the females of sedition, containing bitter invectives and 
slanders against the King and some of the council : for the 
contriving and dispersing whereof, after great diligence of 
inquiry, five mean persons were caught up and executed. 



149i] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 127 

Mean while the King did not neglect Ireland, being the 
soil where these mushrooms and upstart weeds, that spring 
up in a night, did chiefly prosper. He sent therefore from 
hence, for the better settling of his affairs there, commis- 
sioners of both robes, the prior of Lanthony, to be his 5 
chancellor in that kingdom ; and Sir Edward Poynings, 
with a power of men, and a martial commission, together 
with a civil power of his lieutenant, with a clause, that the 
earl of Kildare, then deputy, should obey him. But the 
wild Irish, who were the principal offenders, fled into the 10 
woods and bogs, after their manner ; and those that knew 
themselves guilty in the pale fled to them. So that Sir 
Edward Poynings was enforced to make a wild chase upon 
the wild Irish : where, in respect of the mountains and 
fastnesses, he did little good. Which, either out of a sus- 15 
picious melancholy upon his bad success, or the better to 
save his service from disgrace, he would needs impute unto 
the comfort that the rebels should receive underhand from 
the earl of Kildare ; every light suspicion growing upon 
the enrl, in respect of the Kildare that was in the action 20 
of Lambert Simnel, and slain at Stokefield. Wherefore he 
caused the earl to be apprehended, and sent into England; 
where, upon examination, he cleared himself so well, as 
he was replaced in his government. But Poynings, the 
better to make compensation of the meagreness of his 25 
service in the wars by acts of peace, called a parliament ; 
where was made that memorable act, which at this day is 
called Poyning's law, whereby all the statutes of England 
were made to be of force in Ireland : for before they were 
not, neither are any now in force in Ireland, which were 30 
made in England since that time ; which was the tenth 
year of the King. 

About this time began to be discovered in the King 



128 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL [1495 

that disposition, which afterwards, nourished and whet on 
by bad counsellors and ministers, proved the blot of his 
times ; which was the course he took to crush treasure out 
of his subjects' purses, by forfeitures upon penal laws. At 
5 this men did startle the more at this time, because it ap- 
peared plainly to be in the King's nature, and not out of 
his necessity, he being now in float for treasure : for that he 
had newly received the peace-money from France, the 
benevolence-money from his subjects, and great casualties 
lo upon the confiscations of the lord chamberlain, and divers 
others. The first noted case of this kind was that of 
Sir William Capel, alderman of London ; who, upon sundry 
penal laws, was condemned in the sum of seven and twenty 
hundred pounds, and compounded with the King for six- 
1 5 teen hundred : and yet after, Empson would have cut 
another chop out of him, if the King had not died in the 
instant. 

The summer following, the King, to comfort his mother, 
whom he did always tenderly love and revere, and to make 
2o open demonstration to the world, that the proceedings 
against Sir William Stanley, which were imposed upon him 
by necessity of state, had not in any degree diminished the 
affection he bare to Thomas his brother, went in progress 
to Latham, to make merry with his mother and the earl, and 
25 lay there divers days. 

During this progress, Perkin Warbeck finding that time 
and temporising, which, whilst his practices were covert and 
wrought well in England, made for him ; did now, when 
they were discovered and defeated, rather make against him, 
30 for that when matters once go down the hill, they stay not 
without a new force, resolved to try his adventure in some 
exploit upon England ; hoping still upon the affections of 
the common people towards the house of York. Which 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI L 129 

body of common people he thought was not to be practised 
upon, as persons of quahty are ; but that the only practice 
upon their affections was to set up a standard in the field. 
The place where he should make his attempt, he chose to 
be the coast of Kent. 5 

The King by this time was grown to such a height of 
reputation for cunning and policy, that every accident and 
event that went well, was laid and imputed to his foresight, 
as if he had set it before : as in this particular of Perkin's 
design upon Kent. For the world would not beHeve after- 10 
wards, but the King, having secret intelligence of Perkin's 
intention for Kent, the better to draw it on, went of purpose 
into the north afar off, laying an open side unto Perkin, to 
make him come to the close, and so to trip up his heels, 
having made sure in Kent beforehand. j 5 

But so it was, that Perkin had gathered together a power 
of all nations, neither in number, nor in the hardiness and 
courage of the persons, contemptible, but in their nature 
and fortunes to be feared, as well of friends as enemies ; 
being bankrupts, and many of them felons, and such as 20 
lived by rapine. These he put to sea, and arrived upon 
the coast of Sandwich and Deal in Kent, about July. 

There he cast anchor, and to prove the affections of the 
people, sent some of his men to land, making great boasts 
of the power that was to follow. The Kentish men, per- 25 
ceivmg that Perkin was not followed by any English of 
name or account, and that his forces consisted but of 
strangers born, and most of them base people and free- 
booters, fitter to spoil a coast, than to recover a kingdom ; 
resorting unto the principal gentlemen of the country, pro- 30 
fessed their loyalty to the King, and desired to be directed 
and commanded for the best of the King's service. The 
gentlemen entering into consultation, directed some forces 

B. H. 9 



I30 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1495 

in good number to shew themselves upon the coast; and 
some of them to make signs to entice Perkin's soldiers to 
land, as if they would join with them ; and some others to 
appear from some other places, and to make semblance as 
5 if they fled from them, the better to encourage them to land. 
But Perkin, who by playing the Prince, or else taught by 
secretary Frion, had learned thus much, that people under 
command do use to consult, and after to march in order; 
and rebels contrariwise run upon an head together in con- 

I o fusion, considering the delay of time, and observing their 
orderly and not tumultuary arming, doubted the worst. 
And therefore the wily youth would not set one foot out of 
his ship, till he might see things were sure. Wherefore the 
King's forces^ perceiving that they could draw on no more 

jr than those that were formerly landed, set upon them and 
cut them in pieces, ere they could fly back to their ships. 
In which skirmish, besides those that fled and were slain, 
there were taken about an hundred and fifty persons. 
Which, for that the King thought, that to punish a few for 

20 example was gentleman's pay ; but for rascal people, they 
were to be cut off" every man, especially in the beginning of 
an enterprise; and likewise for that he saw, that Perkin's 
forces would now consist chiefly of such rabble and scum of 
desperate people, he therefore hanged them all for the 

25 greater terror. They were brought to London all railed in 
ropes, like a team of horses in a cart, and were executed 
some of them at London and Wapping, and the rest at 
divers places upon the sea coast of Kent, Sussex, and Nor- 
folk, for sea-marks or lighthouses, to teach Perkin's people 

30 to avoid the coast. The King being advertised of the land- 
ing of the rebels, thought to leave his progress : but being 
certified the next day, that they were partly defeated and 
partly fled, he continued his progress, and sent Sir Richard 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 131 

Guildford into Kent in message; who calling the country 
together, did much commend from the King their fidelity, 
manhood, and well handling of that service ; and gave 
them all thanks, and, in private, promised reward to some 
particulars. 5 

Upon the sixteenth of November, this being the eleventh 
year of the King, was holden the Serjeants' feast at Ely- 
place, there being nine Serjeants of that call. The King, 
to honour the feast, was present with his Queen at the 
dinner; being a Prince that was ever ready to grace and 10 
countenance the professors of the law; having a little of 
that, that as he governed his subjects by his laws, so he 
governed his laws by his lawyers. 

This year also the King entered into league with the 
Italian potentates for the defence of Italy against France. 15 
For King Charles had conquered the realm of Naples, and 
lost it again, in a kind of felicity of a dream. He passed 
the whole length of Italy without resistance ; so that it was 
true which Pope Alexander was wont to say, That the 
Frenchmen came into Italy with chalk in their hands, to 20 
mark up their lodgings, rather than with swords to fight. 
He likewise entered and won, in effect, the whole king- 
dom of Naples itself, without striking stroke. But presently 
thereupon he did commit and multiply so many errors, 
as was too great a task for the best fortune to overcome. 25 
He gave no contentment to the barons of Naples, of the 
faction of the Angeovines ; but scattered his rewards ac- 
cording to the mercenary appetites of some about him. 
He put all Italy upon their guard, by the seizing and hold- 
ing of Ostia, and the protecting of the liberty of Pisa; which 30 
made all men suspect, that his purposes looked farther than 
his title of Naples. He fell too soon at difference with 
Ludovico Sfortia, who was the man that carried the keys 

9-2 



132 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. [1495 

whicli brought him in, and shut him out. He neglected 
to extinguish some rehcs of the war. And lastly, in regard 
of his easy passage through Italy without resistance, he 
entered into an overmuch despising of the arms of the 
5 Italians; whereby he left the realm of Naples at his de- 
parture so much the less provided. So that not long after 
his return, the whole kingdom revolted to Ferdinando the 
younger, and the French were quite driven out. Never- 
theless Charles did make both great threats, and great 

lo preparations to re-enter Italy once again. Wherefore at 
the instance of divers of the states of Italy, and espe- 
cially of Pope Alexander, there was a league concluded 
between the said Pope, Maximilian King of the Romans, 
Henry King of England, Ferdinando and Isabella King 

15 and Queen of Spain, for so they are constantly placed in 
the original treaty throughout, Augustino Barbadico duke 
of Venice, and Ludovico Sfortia duke of Milan, for the 
common defence of their estates: wherein though Ferdi- 
nando of Naples was not named as principal, yet, no doubt, 

20 the kingdom of Naples was tacitly included as a fee of tlie 
church. 

There died also this year Cecile duchess of York, 
mother to king Edward the fourth, at her castle of Bark- 
hamsted, being of extreme years, and who had lived to 

25 see three Princes of her body crowned, and four murdered. 
She was buried at Foderingham, by her husband. 

This year also the King called his parliament, where 
many laws were made of a more private and vulgar nature, 
than ought to detain the reader of an history. And it may 

30 be justly suspected by the proceedings following, that as 
the King did excel in good commonwealth laws, so never- 
theless he had, in secret, a design to make use of them, as 
well for collecting of treasure, as for correcting of manners j 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 133 

and so meaning thereby to harrow his people, did accu- 
mulate them the rather. 

The principal law that was made this parliament, was 
a law of a strange nature ; rather just than legal ; and more 
magnanimous than provident. This law did ordain ; That 5 
no person that did assist in arms, or otherwise, the King 
for the time being, should after be impeached therefore, or 
attainted, either by the course of the law, or by act of 
parliament. But if any such act of attainder did happen 
to be made, it should 'be void and of none effect; for that 10 
it was agreeable to reason of estate, that the subject should 
not inquire of the justness of the King's title, or quarrel ; 
and it was agreeable to good conscience, that, whatsoever 
the fortunes of the war were, the subject should not suffer 
for his obedience. The spirit of this law was wonderful 15 
pious and noble, being like, in matter of war, unto the 
spirit of David in matter of plague ; who said. If I have 
sinned, sb'ike nic ; but what have these sheep done? Neither 
wanted this law parts of prudent and deep foresight : for 
it did the better take away occasion for the people to busy 20 
themselves to pry into the King's title; for that howso- 
ever it fell, their safety was already provided for. Besides, 
it could not but greatly draw unto him the love and hearts 
of the people, because he seemed more careful for them 
than for himself. But yet nevertheless it did take off from 25 
his party that great tic and spur of necessity, to fight and 
go victors out of the field ; considering their lives and for- 
tunes were put in .safety and protected, whether they stood 
to it, or ran away. But the force and obligation of this 
law was in itself illusory, as to the latter part of it, by a 30 
precedent act of parliament to bind or frustrate a future. 
For a supreme and absolute power cannot conclude itself, 
neither can that which is in nature revocable be made 



134 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1495 

fixed, no more than if a man should appoint or declare 
by his will, that if he made any later will it should be 
void. And for the case of the act of parliament, there is 
a notable precedent of it in King Henry the eighth's time; 
5 who doubting he might die in the minority of his son, 
procured an act to pass. That no statute made during the 
minority of a King, should bind him or his successors, 
except it were confirmed by the King under his great seal 
at his full age. But the first act that passed in King 

lo Edward the sixth's time, was an act of repeal of that 
former act ; at which time nevertheless the King was minor. 
But things that do not bind, may satisfy for the time. 

There was also made a shoring or under-propping act 
for the benevolence : to make the sums which any person 

jc had agreed to pay, and nevertheless were not brought in, to 
be leviable by course of law. Which act did not only bring 
in the arrears, but did indeed countenance the whole busi- 
ness, and was pretended to be made at the desire of those 
that had been forward to pay. 

2o This parliament also was made that good law, which 
gave the attaint upon a false verdict between party and 
party, which before was a kind of evangile, irremediable. 
It extends not to causes capital, as well because they are 
for the most part at the King's suit ; as because in them, 

25 if they be followed in course of indictment, there passeth 
a double jury, the indictors, and the triers ; and so not 
twelve men, but four and twenty. But it seemeth that 
was not the only reason ; for this reason holdeth not in 
the appeal. But the great reason was, lest it should tend 

30 to the discouragement of jurors in cases of life and death; 
if they should be subject to suit and penalty, where the 
favour of life maketh against them. It extendeth not 
also to any suit, where the demand is under the value of 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 135 

forty pounds ; for that in such cases of petty value it would 
not quit the charge, to go about again. 

There was another law made against a branch of in- 
gratitude in women, wlio having been advanced by their 
husbands, or their husbands' ancestors, should alien, and 5 
thereby seek to defeat the heirs, or those in remainder, of 
the lands, whereunto they had been so advanced. The 
remedy was, by giving power to the next, to enter for a 
forfeiture. 

There was also enacted that charitable law, for the ad- 10 
mission of poor suitors in forma pauperis, without fee to 
counseller, attorney, or clerk, whereby poor men became 
rather able to vex than unable to sue. There were divers 
other good laws made that parliament, as we said before : 
but we still observe our manner, in selecting out those, that 1 5 
are not of a vulgar nature. 

The King this while, though he sat in parliament, as in 
full peace, and seemed to account of the designs of Perkin, 
who was now returned into Flanders, but as a may-game ; 
yet having the composition of a wise King, stout without, 20 
and apprehensive within, had given order for the watching 
of beacons upon the coasts, and erecting more where they 
stood too thin, and had a careful eye where this wandering 
cloud would break. But Perkin, advised to keep his fire, 
which hitherto burned as it were upon green wood, alive 25 
with continual blowing; sailed again into Ireland, whence 
he had formerly departed, rather upon the hopes of France, 
than upon any unreadiness or discouragement he found in 
that people. But in the space of time between the King's 
diligence and Poynings's commission had so settled things 3° 
there, as there was nothing left for Perkin, but the blustering 
affection of wild and naked people. Wherefore he was ad- 
vised by his council, to seek aid of the King of Scotland, a 



136 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1495 

Prince young and valorous, and in good terms with his 
nobles and people, and ill afifected to King Henry. At this 
time also both Maximilian and Charles of France began to 
bear no good will to the King : the one being displeased 
5 with the King's prohibition of commerce with Flanders ; the 
other holding the King for suspect, in regard of his late 
entry into league with the Italians. Wherefore, besides the 
open aids of the duchess of Burgundy, which did with sails 
and oars put on and advance Perkin's designs, there wanted 

1 o not some secret tides from Maximilian and Charles, which 
did further his fortunes : insomuch as they, both by their 
secret letters and messages, recommended him to the King 
of Scotland. 

Perkin therefore coming into Scotland upon those hopes, 

X r with a well-appointed company, was by the King of Scots, 
being formerly well prepared, honourably welcomed, and 
soon after his arrival admitted to his presence, in a solemn 
manner : for the King received him in state in his cham- 
l)er of presence, accompanied with divers of his nobles. 

20 And Perkin well attended, as well with those that the King 
had sent before him, as with his own train, entered the 
room where the King was, and coming near to the King, 
and bowing a little to embrace him, he retired some paces 
back, and with a loud voice, that all that were present might 

2c hear him, made his declaration in this manner : 

" High and mighty King, your grace, and these your 
" nobles here present, may be pleased benignly to bow your 
" ears, to hear the tragedy of a young man, that by right 
" ought to hold in his hand the ball of a kingdom ; but by 

30 " fortune is made himself a ball, tossed from misery to 
" misery, and from place to place. You see here before you 
" the spectacle of a Plantagenet, who hath been carried from 
"the nursery to the sanctuary; from the sanctuary, to the 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 137 

"direful prison; from the prison, to the hand of the cruel 
"tormentor; and from that hand to the wide wilderness, as 
" I may truly call it, for so the world hath been to me. So 
" that he that is born to a great kingdom, hath not ground 
" to set his foot upon, more than this where he now standeth 5 
*' by your princely favour. Edward the fourth, late King of 
" England, as your grace cannot but have heard, left two 
" sons, Edward, and Richard duke of York, both very young. 
" Edward the eldest succeeded their father in the crown, by 
" the name of King Edward the fifth : but Richard duke of 10 
" Gloucester, their unnatural uncle, first thirsting after the 
"kingdom, through ambition, and afterwards thirsting for 
" their blood, out of desire to secure himself, employed an 
"instrument of his, confident to him, as he thought, to 
"murder them both. But this man that was employed to 15 
" execute that execrable tragedy, having ciuelly slain King 
" Edward, the eldest of the two, was moved partly by re- 
" morse, and partly by some other means, to save Richard 
"his brother; making a report nevertheless to the tyrant, 
" that he had performed his commandment to both brethren. 20 
''This report was accordingly believed, and published gene- 
" rally : so that the world hath been possessed of an opinion, 
"that they both were barbarously made away; though ever 
" truth hath some sparks that fly abroad, until it appear in 
" due time, as this hath had. But Almighty God, that stop- 25 
" ped the mouth of the lion, and saved little Joash from the 
" tyranny of Athaliah, when she massacred the King's chil- 
"dren; and did save Isaac, when the hand was stretched 
" forth to sacrifice him ; preserved the second brother. For 
" I myself, that stand here in your presence, am that very 30 
" Richard duke of York, brother of that unfortunate Prince 
" King Edward the fifth, now the most rightful surviving 
"heir male to that victorious and most noble Edward, of 



138 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1495 

"that name the fourth, late King of England. For the 
" manner of my escape, it is fit it should pass in silence, or, 
" at least, in a more secret relation ; for that it may concern 
" some alive, and the memory of some that are dead. Let 
5 " it suffice to think, that I had then a mother living, a 
" Queen, and one that expected daily such a commandment 
" from the tyrant, for the murdering of her children. Thus 
" in my tender age escaping by God's mercy out of London, 
" I was secretly conveyed over sea : where, after a time, the 

10 "party that had me in charge, upon what new fears, change 
" of mind or practice, God knoweth, suddenly forsook me. 
" Whereby 1 was forced to wander abroad, and to seek 
" mean conditions for the sustaining of my life. Wherefore 
" distracted between several passions, the one of fear to be 

15 "known, lest the tyrant should have a new attempt upon 
"me ; the other of grief and disdain to be unknown, and to 
" live in that base and servile manner that I did ; I resolved 
" with myself to expect the tyrant's death, and then to put 
" myself into my sister's hands, who was next heir to the 

20 " crown. But in this season it happened one Henry Tudor, 
"son to Edmund Tudor earl of Richmond, to come from 
" France and enter into the realm, and by subtile and foul 
" means to obtain the crown of the same, which to me right- 
" fully appertained : so that it was but a change from tyrant 

25 "to tyrant. This Henry, my extreme and mortal enemy, so 
" soon as he had knowledge of my being alive, imagined 
" and wrought all the subtile ways and means he could, to 
"procure my final destruction: for my mortal enemy hath 
" not only falsely surmised me to be a feigned person, giving 

30 " me nick-names, so abusing the world ; but also, to defer 
" and put me from entry into England, hath offered large 
" sums of money to corrupt the Princes and their ministers, 
" with whom I have been retained ; and made importune 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 139 

labours to certain servants about my person, to murder or 
poison me, and others to forsake and leave my righteous 
quarrel, and to depart from my service, as Sir Robert Clif- 
ford, and others. So that every man of reason may well 
perceive, that Henry, calling himself King of England, 5 
needed not to have bestowed such great sums of treasure, 
nor so to have busied himself with importune and inces- 
sant labour and industry, to compass my death and ruin, 
if I had been such a feigned person. But the truth of my 
cause being so manifest, moved the most Christian King 10 
Charles, and the lady duchess dowager of Burgundy my 
most dear aunt, not only to acknowledge the truth thereof, 
but lovingly to assist me. But it seemeth that God above, . 
for the good of this whole island, and the knitting of these 
two kingdoms of England and Scotland in a strait concord 1 5 
and amity, by so great an obligation, hath reserved the 
placing of me in the imperial throne of England for the 
arms and succours of your grace. Neither is it the first 
time that a King of Scotland hath supported them that 
were bereft and spoiled of the kingdom of England, as of 20 
late, in fresh memory, it was done in the person of Henry 
the sixth. Wherefore, for that your grace hath given clear 
signs, that you are in no noble quality inferior to your 
royal ancestors ; I, so distressed a Prince, was hereby 
moved to come and put myself into your royal hands, de- 25 
siring your assistance to recover my kingdom of England ; 
promising faithfully to bear myself towards your grace no 
otherwise, than if I were your own natural brother; and 
• will, upon the recovery of mine inheritance, gratefully do 
' you all the pleasure that is in my utmost power." 30 

After Perkin had told his tale, King James answered 
bravely and wisely ; *' That whatsoever he were, he should 
" not repent him of putting himself into his hands." And 



I40 HISTORY OF KING HENRY ]'L. [1495 

from that time forth, though there wanted not some about 
him, that would have persuaded him that all was but an 
illusion ; yet notwithstanding, either taken by Perkin's 
amiable and alluring behaviour, or inclining to the recom- 
r mendation of the great Princes abroad, or willing to take 
an occasion of a war against King Henry, he entertained 
him in all things, as became the person of Richard duke 
of York ; embraced his quarrel ; and, the more to put it 
out of doubt, that he took him to be a great Prince, and 

lo not a representation only, he gave consent, that this duke 
should take to wife the lady Catharine Gordon, daughter 
to the earl of Huntley, being a near kinswoman to the 
King himself, and a young virgin of excellent beauty and 
virtue. 

Tc Not long after, the King of Scots in person, with Perkin 
in his company, entered with a great army, though it con- 
sisted chiefly of borderers being raised somewhat suddenly, 
into Northumberland. And Perkin, for a perfume before 
him as he went, caused to be published a jjroclamation' 

20 of this tenor following, in the name of Richard duke of 
York, true inheritor of the crown of England : 

" IT hath pleased (iotl, who putteth down the mighty 
" from their seat, and exalteth the humble, and suffereth 
" not the hopes of the just to perish in the end, to give us 

25 " means at the length to shew ourselves armed unto our 
" lieges and people of England. But far be it from us to 
" intend their hurt or damage, or to make war upon them, 
" otherwise than to deliver ourself and them from tyranny 
" and oppression. For our mortal enemy Henry Tudor, a 

30 ^ The original of this proclamation remainetli with Sir Robert 
Cotton, a worthy preserver and treasurer of rare antiquities : from 
whose manuscripts I have had much light for the furnishing of this 
work. 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. 141 

" false usurper of the crown of England, which to us by 
" natural and lineal right appertaineth, knowing in his own 
" heart our undoubted right, we being the very Richard duke 
" of York, younger son, and now surviving heir male of the 
** noble and victorious Edward the fourth, late King of 5 
" England, hath not only deprived us of our kingdom, but 
" likewise by all foul and wicked means sought to betray 
" us, and bereave us of our life. Yet if his tyranny only 
" extended itself to our person, although our royal blood 
"teaches us to be sensible of injuries, it should be less to 
" to our grief But this Tudor, who boasteth himself to 
" have overthrown a tyrant, hath, ever since his first en- 
" trance into his usurped reign, put little in practice, but 
" tyranny and the feats thereof 

*' For King Richard, our unnatural uncle, although 15 
" desire of rule did blind him, yet in his other actions, 
'* like a true l^lantagenct, was noble, and loved the honour 
" of the realm, and the contentment and comfort of his 
" nobles and people. But this our mortal enemy, agree- 
" able to the meanness of his l)irth, hath trodden under 20 
*' foot the honour of this nation ; selling our best con- 
'* federates for money, and making merchandise of the 
" blood, estates, and fortunes of our peers and subjects, 
" by feigned wars, and dishonourable peace, only to enrich 
''his coffers. Nor unlike hatli been his hateful misgovern 25 
" ment, and evil deportments at home. First, he liath to 
•' fortify his false quarrel, caused divers nobles of this our 
" realm, whom he held suspect and stood in dread of, to 
" be cruelly murdered ; as our cousin Sir William Stanley, 
'• lord chamberlain. Sir Simon Mountfort, Sir Robert Rat- 30 
" cliffe, William Daubeney, Humphrey Stafford, and many 
" others, besides such as have dearly bought their lives 
" with intolerable ransoms : some of which nobles are now 



142 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII, [1495 

"in the sanctuary. Also he hath long kept, and yet 
*' keepeth in prison, our right entirely well-beloved cousin, 
" Edward, son and heir to our uncle duke of Clarence, 
"and others; withholding from them their rightful in- 

5 "heritance, to the intent they should never be of might 
" and power, to aid and assist us at our need, after the 
'• duty of their legiances. He also married by compulsion 
" certain of our sisters, and also the sister of our said 
'• cousin the earl of Warwick, and divers other ladies of 

lo ''the royal blood, unto certain of his kinsmen and friends 
" of simple and low degree ; and, putting apart all well- 
" disposed nobles, he hath none in favour and trust about 
" his person, but bishop Fox, Smith, Bray, Lovel, Oliver 
" King, David Owen, Riseley, Turberville, Tiler, Chomley, 

15 '' Empson, James Hobart, John Cut, Garth, Henry Wyat, 
" and such other caitiffs and villains of birth, which by 
" subtile inventions, and pilling of the people, have been 
" the principal finders, occasioners, and counsellors of the 
" misrule and mischief now reigning in England. 

20 " We remembering these premises, with the great and 
" execrable offences daily committed and done by our 
" foresaid great enemy and his adherents, in breaking the 
" liberties and franchises of our mother the holy church, 
" upon pretences of wicked and heathenish policy, to the 

25 "high displeasure of Almighty God, besides the manifold 
" treasons, abominable murders, manslaughters, robberies, 
" extortions, the daily pilling of the people by dismes, 
'' taxes, tallages, benevolences, and other unlawful imposi- 
" tions, and grievous exactions, with many other heinous 

•70 '' effects, to the likely destruction and desolation of the 
" whole realm : shall by God's grace, and the help and 
" assistance of the great lords of our blood, with the counsel 
" of other sad persons, see that the commodities of our 



1495] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 143 

** realm be employed to the most advantage of the same ; 
" the intercourse of merchandise betwixt realm and realm 
** to be ministered and handled as shall more be to the 
" common weal and prosperity of our subjects; and all such 
** dismes, taxes, tallages, benevolences, unlawful imposi- 5 
" tions, and grievous exactions, as be above rehearsed, to 
" be fordone and laid apart, and never from henceforth ' 
" to be called upon, but in such cases as our noble pro- 
" genitors, Kings of England, have of old time been ac- 
" customed to have the aid, succour, and help of their 10 
'' subjects, and true liege-rnen. 

" And farther, we do, out of our grace and clemency, 
•' hereby as well publish and promise to all our subjects 
" remission and free pardon of all by-past offences what- 
*' soever, against our person or estate, in adhering to our 15 
" said enemy, by whom, we know well, they have been 
" misled, if they shall within time convenient submit them- 
" selves unto us. And for such as shall come with the 
" foremost to assist our righteous quarrel, we shall make 
" them so far partakers of our princely favour and bounty, 20 
" as shall be highly for the comfort of them and theirs, 
" both during their life and after their death : as also we 
" shall, by all means which God shall put into our hands, 
" demean ourselves to give royal contentment to all degrees 
" and estates of our people, maintaining the liberties of 25 
" holy church in their entire, preserving the honours, privi- 
" leges, and preeminences of our nobles, from contempt 
" of disparagement, according to the dignity of their blood. 
" We shall also unyoke our people from all heavy burdens 
** and endurances, and confirm our cities, boroughs and 30 
" towns, in their charters and freedoms, with enlargement 
" where it shall be deserved ; and in all points give our 
" subjects cause to think, that the blessed and debonair 



144 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1495 

'' government of our noble father King Edward, in his 
" last times, is in us revived. 

" And forasmuch as the putting to death, or taking alive 
" of our said mortal enemy, may be a mean to stay much 
5 " effusion of blood, which otherwise may ensue, if by 
" compulsion or fair promises he shall draw after him any 
'■'■ number of our subjects to resist us, which we desire to 
" avoid, though we be certainly informed, that our said 
" enemy is purposed and prepared to fly tlie land, having 

lo " already made over great masses of the treasure of our 
" crown, the better to support him in foreign parts, we 
'' do hereby declare, that whosoever shall take or distress 
" our said enemy, though the party be of never so mean 
*' a condition, he shall be by us rewarded with a thousand 

15 "pound in money, forthwith to be laid down to him, and 
"an hundred marks by the year of inheritance; besides 
" that he may otherwise merit, both toward God and all 
" good people, for the destruction of such a tyrant. 

" Lastly, we do all men to wit, and herein we take also 

2o " God to witness, that whereas God hath moved the heart 
" of our dearest cousin, the King of Scotland, to aid us 
" in person in this our righteous quarrel ; it is altogether 
'' without any pact or promise, or so much as demand of 
'' any thing that may prejudice our crown or subjects : 

25 "but contrariwise, with i)romise on our said cousin's part, 
" that whensoever he shall find us in sufficient strength to 
" get the upper hand of our enemy, which we hope will 
" be very suddenly, he will forthwith peaceably return into 
" his own kingdom ; contenting himself only with the glory 

30 '* of so honourable an enterprise, and our true and faithful 
" love and amity : which we shall ever, by the grace of 
" Almighty God, so order, as shall be to the great comfort 
" of both kingdoms." 



149|] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 145 

But Perkin's proclamation did little edify with the 
people of England ; neither was he the better welcome 
for the company he came in. Wherefore the King of 
Scotland seeing none came in to Perkin, nor none stirred 
any where in his favour, turned his enterprise into a rode ; 5 
and wasted and destroyed the country of Northumberland 
with fire and sword. But hearing that there were forces 
coming against him, and not willing that they should find 
his men heavy and laden with booty, he returned into 
Scotland with great spoils, deferring farther prosecution 10 
till another time. It is said, that Perkin, acting the part 
of a Prince handsomely, when he saw the Scottish fell to 
waste the country, came to the King in a passionate man- 
ner, making great lamentation, and desired, that that might 
not be the manner of making the war ; for that no crown '5 
was so dear to his mind, as that he desired to purchase it 
with the blood and ruin of his country. Whereunto the 
King answered half in sport, that he doubted much he was 
careful for that that was none of his, and that he should 
be too good a steward for his enemy, to save the country 20 
to his use. 

By this time, being the eleventh year of the King, the 
interruption of trade between the English and the Flemish 
began to pinch the merchants of both nations very sore : 
which moved them by all means they could devise, to 25 
aftect and dispose their sovereigns respectively, to open 
the intercourse again ; wherein time favoured them. For 
the archduke and his council began to see, that Perkin 
would prove but a runagate and citizen of the world ; and 
that it was the part of children to fall out about babies. 3° 
And the King on his part, after the attempts upon Kent 
and Northumberland, began to have the business of Perkin 
in less estimation ; so as he did not put it to account 
B. H. 10 



146 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. [1496 

in any consultation of state. But that that moved him 
most was, that being a King that loved wealth and trea- 
sure, he could not endure to have trade sick, nor any 
obstruction to continue in the gate-vein, which disperseth 
5 that blood. And yet he kept state so far, as first to be 
sought unto. Wherein the merchant-adventurers likewise, 
being a strong company at that time, and well under-set 
with rich men, and good order, did hold out bravely : 
taking off the commodities of the kingdom, though they 

lo lay dead upon their hands for want of vent. At the last, 
commissioners met at London to treat : on the King's 
part, bishop Fox lord privy seal, viscount Wells, Kendal 
prior of saint John's, Warham master of the rolls, who 
began to gain much upon the King's opinion ; Urswick, 

1 5 who was almost ever one ; and Riseley : on the archduke's 
part, the lord Bevers his admiral, the lord Verunsel pre- 
sident of Flanders, and others. These concluded a perfect 
treaty, both of amity and intercourse, between the King 
and the archduke ; containing articles both of state, com- 

2o merce, and free fishing. This is that treaty which the 
Flemings call at this day intercursus magiius ; both be- 
cause it is more complete than the precedent treaties of 
the third and fourth year of the King ; and chiefly to give 
it a difference from the treaty that followed in the one 

25 and twentieth year of the King, which they call iniercursus 
malus. In this treaty, there was an express article against 
the reception of the rebels of either Prince by other ; pur- 
porting. That if any such rebel should be required, by the 
Prince whose rebel he was, of the Prince confederate, that 

30 forthwith the Prince confederate should by proclamation 
command him to avoid the country : which if he did not 
within fifteen days, the rebel was to stand proscribed, and 
put out of protection. But nevertheless in this article 



149^] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 147 

Perkin was not named, neither perhaps contained, because 
he was no rebel. But by this means his wings were cHpt 
of his followers that were English. And it was expressly 
comprised in the treaty, that it should extend to the 
territories of the duchess dowager. After the intercourse 5 
thus restored, the English merchants came again to their 
mansion at Antwerp, where they were received with pro- 
cession and great joy. 

The winter following, being the twelfth year of his reign, 
the King called again his parliament; where he did much 10 
exaggerate both the malice, and the cruel predatory war 
lately made by the King of Scotland : That that King, 
being in amity with him, and no ways provoked, should 
so burn in hatred towards him, as to drink of the lees and 
dregs of Perkin's intoxication, who was every where else 15 
detected and discarded : and that when he perceived it 
was out of his reach to do the King any hurt, he had 
turned his arms upon unharmed and unprovided people, 
to spoil only and depopulate, contrary to the laws both of 
war and peace : concluding, that he could neither with 20 
honour nor with the safety of his peo})le, to whom he did 
owe protection, let pass these wrongs unrevenged. The 
parliament understood him well, and gave him a subsidy, 
limited to the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand 
pounds, besides two fifteenths : for his wars were always to 25 
him as a mine of treasure, of a strange kind of ore ; iron 
at the top, and gold and silver at the bottom. At this 
parliament, for that there had been so much time spent in 
making laws the year before, and for that it was called 
purposely in respect of the Scottish war, there were no laws 30 
made to be remembered. Only there passed a law, at the 
suit of the merchant-adventurers of England, against the 
merchant-adventurers of London, for monopolizing and 

10 — 2 



148 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [U97 

exacting upon the trade : which it seemeth they did a 
httle to save themselves, after the hard time they had 
sustained by want of trade. But those innovations were 
taken away by parHament. 
5 But it was fatal to the King to fight for his money ; and 
though he avoided to fight with enemies abroad, yet he was 
still enforced to fight for it with rebels at home : for no 
sooner began the subsidy to be levied in Cornwall, but the 
people there began to grudge and murmur. The Cornish 

lo being a race of men, stout of stomach, mighty of body and 
limb, and that lived hardly in a barren country, and many 
of them could, for a need, live under ground, that were tin- 
ners. They muttered extremely, that it was a thing not to 
be suftered, that for a little stir of the Scots, soon blown 

15 over, they should be thus grinded to powder with payments: 
and said it was for them to i)ay that had too much, and 
lived idly. But they would eat their bread that they got 
with the sweat of their brows, and no man should take it 
from them. And as in the tides of people once up, there 

20 want not commonly stirring winds to make them more 
rough ; so this people did light upon two ringleaders or cap- 
tains of the rout. The one was Michael Joseph, a black- 
smith or farrier of Bodmin, a notable talking fellow, and no 
less desirous to be talked of The other was Thomas Flam- 

25 mock, a lawyer, who, by telling his neighbours commonly 
upon any occasion that the law was on their side, had got- 
ten great sway amongst them. This man talked learnedly, 
and as if he could tell how to make a rebellion, and never 
break the peace. He told the people, that subsidies were 

30 not to be granted, nor levied in this case ; that is, for wars 
of Scotland : for that the law had provided another course, 
by service of escuage, for those journeys ; much less when 
all was quiet, and war was made but a pretence to poll and 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 149 

pill the people. And therefore that it was good they should 
not stand now like sheep before the shearers, but put on 
harness, and take weapons in their hands. Yet to do no 
creature hurt ; but go and deliver the King a strong petition, 
for the laying down of those grievous payments, and for the 5 
punishment of those that had given him that counsel ; to 
make others beware how they did the like in time to come. 
And said, for his part he did not see how they could do the 
duty of true Englishmen, and good liege-men, except they 
did deliver the King from such wicked ones, that would 10 
destroy both him and the country. Their aim was at arch- 
bishop Morton and Sir Reginald Bray, who were the King's 
screens in this envy. 

After that these two, Flammock and tlie blacksmith, 
had by joint and several pratings found tokens of consent 1 5 
in the multitude, they offered themselves to lead them, until 
they should hear of better men to be their leaders, which 
they said would be ere long : telling them fiirtlier, that they 
would be but their servants, and first in every danger; but 
doubted not but to make both the west-end and the east-end 20 
of England to meet in so good a c^uarrel; and that all, 
rightly unilerstood, was but for the King's service. The 
people upon these seditious instigations, did arm, most of 
them with bows, and arrows, and bills, and such other 
weapons of rude and country people, and forthwith undei 25 
the command of their leaders, which in sucli cases is ever 
at pleasure, marched out of Cornwall through Devonshire 
unto Taunton in Somersetshire, without any slaughter, vio- 
lence, or spoil of the country. At Taunton they killed in 
fury an officious and eager commissioner for the subsidy, 30 
whom they called the provost of Perin. Thence they 
marched to Wells, where the lord Audley, with whom their 
leaders had before some secret intelligence, a nobleman of 



ISO HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

an ancient family, but unquiet and popular, and aspiring to 
ruin, came in to them, and was by them, with great gladness 
and cries of joy, accepted as their general; they being now 
proud that they were led by a nobleman. The lord Audley 
5 led them on from Wells to Salisbury and from Salisbury to 
Winchester. Thence the foolish people, who, in effect, led 
their leaders, had a mind to be led into Kent, fancying that 
the people there would join with them ; contrary to all rea- 
son or judgment, considering the Kentish men had shewed 

lo great loyalty and affection to the King so lately before. 
But the rude people had heard Flammock say, that Kent 
was never conquered, and that they were the freest people 
of England. And upon these vain noises, they looked for 
great matters at their hands, in a cause whicli they conceited 

15 to be for the liberty of the subject. But when they were 
come into Kent, the country was so well settled, both by 
the King's late kind usage towards them, and by the credit 
and power of the earl of Kent, the lord Abergavenny, and 
the lord Cobham, as neither gentleman nor yeoman came 

20 in to their aid ; which did much damp and dismay many of 
the simpler sort ; insomuch as divers of them did secretly 
fly from the army, and went home : but tlie sturdier sort, 
and those that were most engaged, stood by it, and rather 
waxed proud, than failed in hopes and courage. For as it 

25 did somewhat appal them, that the people came not in to 
them; so it did no less encourage them, that the King's 
forces had not set upon them, having marched from the west 
unto the east of England. Wherefore they kept on their 
way, and encamped upon Blackheath, between Greenwich 

30 and Eltham ; threatening either to bid battle to the King, 
for now the seas went higher than to Morton and Bray, or 
to take London within his view ; imagining with themselves, 
there to find no less fear than wealth. 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 151 

But to return to the King. When first he heard of this 
commotion of the Cornish men occasioned by the subsidy, 
he was much troubled therewith; not for itself, but in regard 
of the concurrence of other dangers that did hang over him 
at that time. For he doubted lest a war from Scotland, a 5 
rebellion from Cornwall, and the practices and conspiracies 
of Perkin and his partakers, would come upon him at once : 
knowing well, that it was a dangerous triplicity to a mo- 
narchy, to have the arms of a foreigner, the discontents of 
subjects, and the title of a pretender to meet. Nevertheless 10 
the occasion took him in some part well provided. For as 
soon as the parliament had broken up, the King had pre- 
sently raised a puissant army to war upon Scotland. And 
King James of Scotland likewise, on his part, had made 
great preparations, either for defence, or for new assailing of 1 5 
England. But as for the King's forces, they were not only 
in preparation, but in readiness presently to set forth, under 
the conduct of Daubeney the lord chamberlain. But as 
soon as the King understood of the rebellion of Cornwall, 
he stayed those forces, retaining them for his own service 20 
and safety. But therewithal he despatched the earl of Sur- 
rey into the north, for the defence and strength of those 
parts, in case the Scots should stir. But for the course he 
held towards the rebels, it was utterly differing from his for- 
mer custom and practice; which was ever full of forwardness 25 
and celerity to make head against them, or to set upon them 
as soon as ever they were in action. This he was wont to 
do. But now, besides that he was attempered by years, and 
less in love with dangers, by the continued fruition of a 
crown ; it was a time when the various appearance to his 30 
thoughts of perils of several natures, and from divers parts, 
did make him judge it his best and surest way, to keep his 
strength together in the seat and centre of his kingdom : 



152 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

according to the ancient Indian emblem, in such a swelling 
season, to hold the hand upon the middle of the bladder, 
that no side might rise. Besides, there was no necessity put 
upon him to alter his counsel. For neither did the rebels 
5 spoil the country, in which case it had been dishonour to 
abandon his people : neither on the other side did their 
forces gather or increase, which might hasten him to preci- 
pitate and assail them before they grew too strong. And 
lastly, both reason of estate and war seemed to agree 

J Q with this course: for tliat insurrections of base i)eople are 
commonly more furious in their beginnings. And by this 
means also he had tliem the more at vantage, being tired 
and liarassed with a long march ; and more at mercy, being 
cut off for from their country, and therefore not able by any 

J c sudden flight to get to retreat, and to renew the troubles. 

When therefoie the rebels were encamped on Black- 
heath ui)on the hill, whence they might behold the city 
of London, and the fair valley about it ; the King knowing 
well, that it stood liim upon, by how much the more he had 

2o hidierto protracted the time in not encountering them, by 
so much the sooner to desj^atch with them, that it might 
appear to liave been no coldness in fore-slowing, but wisdom 
in choosing his time ; resolved with all speed to assail them, 
and )'et with that providence and surety, as should leave 

2^ little to venture or fortune. And having very great and 
puissant forces about him, the better to master all events 
and accidents, he divided them into three parts; the first 
was led by the earl of Oxford in chief, assisted by the earls 
of Essex and Suffolk. These noblemen were appointed, 

30 with some corners of horse, and bands of foot, and good 
store of artillery, wheeling about to put tliemselves beyond 
the hill where the rebels were encamped ; and to beset all 
the skirts and descents thereof, except those that lay to- 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 153 

wards London ; thereby to have these wild beasts, as it 
. were, in a toil. The second part of his forces, which were 
those that were to be most in action, and upon which he 
relied most for the fortune of the day, he did assign to be 
led by the lord chamberlain, who was appointed to set upon 5 
the rebels in front, from that side which is towards London. 
The third part of his forces, being likewise great and brave 
forces, he retained about himself, to be ready upon all 
events to restore the fight, or consummate the victory ; and 
mean while to secure the city. And for that purpose he 10 
encamped in person in Saint George's Fields, putting himself 
between the city and the rebels. But the city of London, 
especially at the first, upon the near encamping of the 
rebels, was in great tumult : as it useth to be with wealthy 
and populous cities, especially those which for greatness 15 
and fortune are queens of their regions, who seldom see out 
of their windows, or from their towers, an army of enemies. 
But that which troubled him most, was the conceit, that 
they dealt with a rout of people, with whom there was no 
composition or condition, or orderly treating, if need were ; 20 
but likely to be bent altogether upon rapine and spoil. 
And although they had heard that the rebels had behaved 
themselves quietly and modestly by the way as they went ; 
yet they doubted much that would not last, but rather make 
them more hungry, and more in appetite to tall upon spoil in 25 
the end. Wherefore there was great running to and fro 
of people, some to the gates, some to the walls, some to 
the water-side ; giving themselves alarms and panic fears 
continually. Nevertheless both Tate the lord mayor, and 
Shaw and Haddon the sheriffs, did their parts stoutly and 30 
well, in arming and ordering the people. And the King 
likewise did adjoin some captains of experience in the wars, 
to advise and assist the citizens. But soon after, when they 



154 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

understood that the King had so ordered the matter, that 
the rebels must win three battles, before they could approach 
the city, and that he had put his own person between the 
rebels and them, and that the great care was, rather how to 
5 impound the rebels that none of them might escape, than 
that any doubt was made to vanquish them : they grew to 
be quiet and out of fear ; the rather, for the confidence they 
reposed, which was not small, in the three leaders, Oxford, 
Essex, and Daubeney ; all men well famed and loved 

TO amongst the people. As for Jasper duke of Bedford, whom 
the king used to employ with the first in his wars, he was 
then sick, and died soon after. 

It was the two and twentietli of June, and a Saturday, 
which was the day of the week the King fancied, when the 

15 battle was fought ; though the King had, by all the art he 
could devise, given out a false day, as if he prepared to give 
the rebels battle on the Monday following, the better to 
find them unprovided, and in disarray. The lords that were 
ai)pointed to circle the hill, had some days before planted 

20 themselves, as at the receit, in places convenient. In the 
afternoon, towards the decline of the day, which was done, 
the better to keep the rebels in opinion that they should 
not fight that day, the lord Daubeney marched on towards 
them, and first beat some troops of them from Deptford- 

25 bridge, where they fought manfully; but, being in no great 
number, were soon driven back, and fled up to their main 
army upon the hill. The army at that time, hearing of the 
approach of the King's forces, were putting themselves in 
array, not without much confusion. But neither had they 

30 placed, upon the first high ground towards the bridge, any 
forces to second the troops below, that kept the bridge; 
neither had they brought forwards their main battle, which 
stood in array far into the heath, near to the ascent of the 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 155 

hill. So that the earl with his forces mounted the hill, and 
recovered the plain, without resistance. The lord Daubeney 
charged them with great fury ; insomuch as he had like, by 
accident, to have brandled the fortune of the day: for, by 
inconsiderate forwardness in fighting at the head of his 5 
troops, he was taken by the rebels, but immediately rescued 
and delivered. The rebels maintained the fight for a small 
time, and for their persons shewed no want of courage ; but 
being ill armed, and ill led, and without horse or artillery, 
they were with no great difficulty cut in pieces, and put to 
to flight. And for their three leaders, the lord Audley, the 
blacksmith, and Flammock, as commonly the captains of 
commotions are but half couraged men, suffered themselves 
to be taken alive. The number slain on the rebels' part 
were some two thousand men ; their army amounting, as it 15 
is said, unto the number of sixteen thousand. The rest 
were, in effect, all taken ; for that the hill, as was said, was 
encompassed with the King's forces round about. On the 
King's part there died about three hundred, most of them 
shot with arrows, which were reported to be of the length of 20 
a tailor's yard ; so strong and mighty a bow the Cornish 
men were said to draw. 

The victory thus obtained, the King created divers ban- 
nerets, as well upon Blackheath, where his lieutenant had 
won the field, whither he rode in person to perform the said 25 
creation, as in St George's Fields, where his own person 
had been encamped. And for matter of liberality, he did, 
by open edict, give the goods of all the prisoners unto those 
that had taken them ; either to take them in kind, or com- 
pound for them, as they could. After matter of honour 30 
and liberality, followed matter of severity and execution. 
The lord Audley was led from Newgate to Tower-hill, in a 
paper coat painted with his own arms ; the arms reversed, 



156 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VTL [1497 

the coat torn, and he at Tower-hill beheaded. Flammock 
and the bhicksmith were hanged, drawn, and quartered at 
Tyburn : the blacksmith taking pleasure upon the hurdle, as 
it seemeth by words that he uttered, to think that he should 
5 be famous in after-times. The King was once in mind to 
have sent down Flanmiock and the blacksmith to have been 
executed in Cornwall, for the more terror : but being adver- 
tised that the country was yet unquiet and boiling, he 
thought better not to irritate the people forther. All the 

] o rest were pardoned by proclamation, and to take out their 
pardons under seal, as many as would. So that, more than . 
the blood drawn in the field, the king did satisfy himself 
with the lives of only three offenders, for the expiation 
of this great rebellion. 

jr It was a strange thing to observe the variety and ine- 
quality of the King's executions and pardons : and a man 
would think it, at the first, a kind of lottery or chance. But, 
looking into it more nearly, one shall find there was reason 
for it, much more, perhaps, than after so long a distance of 

20 time we can now discern. In the Kentish commotion, 
which was but an handful of men, there were executed to 
the number of one hundred and fifty : and in this so mighty 
a rebellion but three. Whether it were that the King put 
to account the men that were slain in the field, or that he 

25 was not willing to be severe in a popular cause, or that the 
harmless behaviour of this people, that came from the west 
of England to the east, without mischief almost, or spoil of 
the country, did somewhat mollify him, and move him to 
compassion; or lastly, that he made a great difference 

30 between people that did rebel upon wantonness, and them 
that did rebel upon want. 

After the Cornish men were defeated, there came from 
Calais to the Kin^r an honourable embassage from the 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 157 

French King, which had arrived at Calais a month before, 
and there was stayed in respect of the troubles, but honour- 
ably entertained and defrayed. The King, at their first 
coming, sent unto them, and prayed them to have patience, 
till a little smoke, that was raised in his country, were over, 5 
which would soon be : slighting, as his manner was, that 
openly, which nevertheless he intended seriously. 

This embassage concerned no great aftair, but only the 
piolongation of days for payment of moneys, and some 
other particulars of the frontiers. And it was, indeed, but a 10 
wooing embassage, with good respects to entertain the King 
in good affection ; but nothing was done or handled to the 
derogation of the King's late treaty with the Italians. 

But during the time that the Cornish men were in their 
march towards London, the King of Scotland, well adver- 15 
tised of all that passed, and knowing himself sure of a 
war from England, whensoever those stirs were appeased, 
neglected not his opi)ortunity; but thinking the King had his 
hands full, entered the frontiers of England again with an 
army, and besieged the castle of Norham in person, with 20 
part of his forces, sending the rest to forage the country. 
But Fox bishop of Durham, a wise man, and one that 
could see through the present to the future, doubting as 
much before, had caused his castle of Norham to be strongly 
fortified, and furnished with all kind of munition : and had 25 
manned it likewise with a \ cry great numl>er of tall soldiers, 
more than for the proportion of the castle, reckoning rather 
upon a sharp as.sault, than a long siege. And for the coun- 
try likewise, he had caused the people to withdraw their 
cattle and goods into fast places, that were not of easy 30 
approach ; and sent in post to the earl of Surrey, who was 
not far off, in Yorkshire, to come in diligence to the succour. 
So as the Scottish King both failed of doing good upon the 



iS8 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

castle, and his men had but a catching harvest of their 
spoils : and when he understood that the earl of Surrey was 
coming on with great forces, he returned back into Scotland. 
The earl, finding the castle freed, and the enemy retired, 
5 pursued with all celerity into Scotland, hoping to have over- 
taken the Scottish King, and to have given him battle; but, 
not attaining him in time, sat down before the castle of 
Aton, one of the strongest places, then esteemed, between 
Berwick and Edinburgh, which in a small time he took. 

I o And soon after, the Scottish King retiring farther into his 
country, and the weather being extraordinary foul and 
stormy, the earl returned into England. So that the expe- 
ditions on both parts were, in etitect, but a castle taken, and 
a castle distressed ; not answerable to the puissance of the 

15 forces, nor to the heat of the quarrel, nor to the greatness of 
the expectation. 

Amongst these troubles, both civil and external, came 
into England from Spain, Peter Hialas, some call him Elias, 
surely he was the forerunner of the good hap that we enjoy 

20 at this day: for his embassage set the truce between England 
and Scotland ; the truce drew on the peace ; the peace the 
marriage ; and the marriage the union of the kingdoms ; 
a man of great wisdom, and, as those times were, not un- 
learned ; sent from Eerdinando and Isabella, Kings of 

25 Spain, unto the King, to treat a marriage between Catha- 
rine, their second daughter, and Prince Arthur. This treaty 
was by him set in a very good way, and almost brought to 
perfection. But it so fell out by the way, that upon some 
conference which he had with the King touching this busi- 

30 ness, the King, who had a great dexterity in getting sud- 
denly into the bosom of ambassadors of foreign Princes, 
if he liked the men ; insomuch as he would many times 
communicate with them of his own affairs, yea, and employ 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 159 

them in his service, fell into speech and discourse incidently, 
concerning the ending of the debates and differences with 
Scotland. For the King naturally did not love the barren 
wars with Scotland, though he made his profit of the noise 
of them. And he wanted not in the council of Scotland, 5 
those that would advise their King to meet him at the half 
way, and to give over the war with England ; pretending to 
be good patriots, but indeed favouring the affairs of the 
King. Only his heart was too great to begin with Scotland 
for the motion of peace. On the other side, he had met 10 
with an ally of Ferdinando of Arragon, as fit for his turn as 
could be. For after that King Ferdinando had, upon 
assured confidence of the marriage to succeed, taken upon 
him the person of a fraternal ally to the King, he would not 
let, in a Spanish gravity, to counsel the King in his own j- 
affairs. And the King on his part, not being wanting to 
himself, but making use of every man's humours, made his 
advantage of this in such things as he thought either not 
decent, or not pleasant to proceed Irom himself; putting 
them ott" as done by the counsel of Ferdinando. Where- 20 
fore he was content that Hialas, as in a matter moved and 
advised from Hialas himself, should go into Scotland, to 
treat of a concord between the two Kings. Hialas took it 
upon him, and coming to the Scottish King, after he had 
with much art brought King James to hearken to the more 25 
safe and quiet counsels, wrote unto the King, that he hoped 
that peace would with no great difficulty cement and close, 
if he would send some wise and temperate counsellor of 
his own, that might treat of the conditions. Whereupon 
the King directed bishop Fox, who at that time was at 30 
his castle of Norham, to confer with Hialas, and they 
both to treat with some commissioners deputed from the 
Scottish King. The commissioners on both sides met. 



i6o HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

But after mucli dispute upon the articles and conditions 
of peace, propounded upon either part, they could not 
conclude a peace. The chief impediment thereof was the 
demand of the King to have Perkin delivered into his 
5 hands, as a reproach to all Kings, and a person not pro- 
tected by the law of nati-ons. The King of Scotland, on 
the other side, peremptorily denied so to do, saying, that 
he, for his part, was no competent judge of Perkin's title : 
but that he had received him as a suppliant, protected him 

lo as a person fled for refuge, espoused him with his kin.-j- 
woman, and aided him with his arms, uj^on the belief that 
he was a prince ; and therefore that he could not now with 
his honour so unrip, and, in a sort, put a lie upon all that 
he had said and done before, as to deliver him uj) to his 

15 enemies. The bishop likewise, who had certain ])roud in- 
structions from the King, at the least in the front, though 
there were a pliant clause at the foot, that remitted all to 
the bishop's discretion, and required him by no means to 
break off in ill terms, after that he had failed to obtain 

20 the delivery of Perkin, did move a second point of his 
instructions, which was, that the Scottish King would give 
the King an interview in person at Newcastle. But this 
being reported to the Scottish King, his answer was, that 
he meant to treat a peace, and not to go a begging for 

25 it. The bishop also, according to another article of his 
instructions, demanded restitution of the spoils taken by 
the Scottish, or damages for the same. But the Scottish 
commissioners answered, that that was but as water spilt 
upon the ground, which could not be gotten up again ; 

30 and that the King's people were better able to bear the 
loss, than their master to repair it. But in the end, as 
persons capable of reason, on both sides they made rather 
a kind of recess than a breach of treaty, and concluded 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII i6i 

upon a truce for some months following. But the King 
of Scotland, though he would not formally retract his 
judgment of Perkin, wherein he had engaged himself so 
far ; yet in his private opinion, upon often speech with the 
Englishmen, and divers other advertisements, began to 5 
suspect him for a counterfeit.- Wherefore in a noble 
fashion he called him unto him, and recounted the bene- 
fits and favours that he had done him in making him his 
ally, and in provoking a mighty and opulent King by an 
offensive war in his quarrel, for the space of two years to- 10 
gether; nay more, that he had refused an honourable peace, 
whereof he had a fair offer, if he would have delivered 
him; and that, to keep his promise with him, he had 
deeply offended both his nobles and people, whom he 
might not hold in any long discontent: and therefore re- 15 
quired him to think of his own fortunes, and to choose 
out some fitter place for his exile : Telling him withal, 
that he could not say, but the English had forsaken him 
before the Scottish, for that, upon two several trials, none 
had declared themselves on his side ; but nevertheless he 20 
would make good what he said to him at his first receiv- 
ing, which was that he should not repent him for putting 
himself into his hands ; for that he would not cast him 
off, but help him with shipping and means to transport 
him where he should desire. Perkin, not descending at 25 
all from his stage-like greatness, answered the King in 
few words, that he saw his time was not yet come ; but 
whatsoever his fortunes were, he should both think and 
speak honour of the King. Taking his leave, he would 
not think on Flanders, doubting it was but hollow ground 30 
for him since the treaty of the archduke, concluded the 
year before ; but took his lady, and such followers as would 
not leave him, and sailed over into Ireland. 

B. H. II 



1 62 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

This twelfth year of the King, a little before this time, 
Pope Alexander, who loved best those Princes that were 
furthest off, and with whom he had least to do, taking very 
thankfully the King's late entrance into league for the 
5 defence of Italy, did remunerate him with an hallowed 
sword and cap of maintenance, sent by his nuncio. Pope 
Innocent had done the like, but it was not received in 
that glory : for the King appointed the mayor and his 
brethren to meet the Pope's orator at London-bridge, and 

lo all the streets between the bridge-foot and the palace of 
Paul's, where the King then lay, were garnished with the 
citizens, standing in their liveries. And the morrow after, 
being Allhallovvs day, the King, attended with many of his 
prelates, nobles, and principal courtiers, went in procession 

1 2 to Paul's, and the cap and sword were borne before him. 
And after the procession, the King himself remaining 
seated in the quire, the lord archbishop, upon the greece 
of the quire, made a long oration : setting forth the great- 
ness and eminency of that honour which the Pope, in 

2o these ornaments and ensigns of benediction, had done the 
King ; and how rarely, and upon what high deserts, they 
used to be bestowed : And then recited the King's prin- 
cipal acts and merits, which had made him appear worthy, 
in the eyes of his Holiness, of this great honour. 

25 All this while the rebellion of Cornwall, whereof we 
have spoken, seemed to have no relation to Perkin ; save 
that perhaps Perkin's proclamation had stricken upon the 
right vein, in promising to lay down exactions and pay- 
ments, and so had made them now and then have a kind 

30 thought on Perkin. But now these bubbles by much 
stirring began to meet, as they use to do upon the top 
of water. The King's lenity by that time the Cornish 
rebels, who were taken and pardoned, and, as it was said, 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 163 

many of them sold by them that had taken them, for 
twelve pence and two shillings apiece, were come down 
into their country, had rather emboldened them, than re- 
claimed them ; insomuch as they stuck not to say to their 
neighbours and countrymen, that the King did well to 5 
pardon them, for that he knew he should leave few sub- 
jects in England, if he hanged all that were of their mind: 
and began whetting and inciting one another to renew the 
commotion. Some of the subtilest of them, hearing of 
Perkin's being in Ireland, found means to send to him to 10 
let him know, that if he would come over to them, they 
would serve him. 

When Perkin heard this news, he began to take heart 
again, and advised upon it with his council, which were 
principally three; Heme a mercer, that had fled for debt; 15 
Skelton a tailor, and Astley a scrivener ; for secretary Frion 
was gone. These told him, that he was mightily overseen, 
both when he went into Kent, and when he went into 
Scotland ; the one being a place so near London, and 
under the King's nose ; and the other a nation so dis- 20 
tasted with the people of England, that if they had loved 
him never so well, yet they would never have taken his 
part in that company. But if he had been so happy as 
to have been in Cornwall at the first, when the people 
began to take arms there, he had been crowned at West- 25 
minster before this time. For, these Kings, as he had 
now experience, would sell poor Princes for shoes. But 
he must rely wholly upon people ; and therefore advised 
him to sail over with all possible speed into Cornwall : 
which accordingly he did ; having in his company four 30 
small barks, with some sixscore or sevenscore fighting men. 
He arrived in September at Whitsand Bay, and forthwith 
came to Bodmin, the blacksmith's town ; where there 

II — 2 



1 64 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

assembled unto him to the number of three thousand men 
of the rude people. There he set forth a new proclamation, 
stroking the people with fair promises, and humouring them 
with invectives against the King and his government. And 
5 as it fareth with smoke, that never loseth itself till it be at 
the highest ; he did now before his end raise his style, en- 
titling himself no more Richard duke of York, but Richard 
the fourth, King of England. His council advised him by 
all means to make himself master of some good walled 

lo town; as well to make his men find the sweetness of rich 
spoils, and to allure to him all loose and lost people, by 
like hopes of booty ; as to be a sure retreat to his forces, 
in case they should have any ill day, or unlucky chance 
in the field. Wherefore they took heart to them, and went 

15 on, and besieged the city of Exeter, the principal town for 
strength and wealth in those parts. 

When they were come before Exeter, they forbare to use 
any force at the first, but made continual shouts and outcries 
to terrify the inhabitants. They did likewise in divers places 

20 call and talk to them from under the walls, to join with 
them, and be of their party ; telling them, that the King 
would make them another London, if they would be the 
first town that should acknowledge him. But they had not 
the wit to send to them, in any orderly fashion, agents or 

25 chosen men, to tempt them and to treat with them. The 
citizens on their part shewed themselves stout and loyal 
subjects : neither was there so much as any tumult or di- 
vision amongst them, but all prepared themselves for a 
valiant defence, and making good the town. For well they 

^o saw, that the rebels were of no such number or power, that 
they needed to fear them as yet ; and well they hoped, that 
before their numbers increased, the King's succours would 
come in. And, howsoever, they thought it the extremest of 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 165 

evils, to put themselves at the mercy of those hungry and 
disorderly people. Wherefore setting all things in good 
order within the town, they nevertheless let down with 
cords, from several parts of the walls privily, several mes- 
sengers, that if one came to mischance, another might pass 5 
on, which should advertise the King of the state of the 
town, and implore his aid. Perkin also doubted, that suc- 
cours would come ere long ; and therefore resolved to use 
his utmost force to assault the town. And for that purpose 
having mounted scaling-ladders in divers places upon the 10 
walls, made at the same instant an attempt to force one of 
the gates. But having no artillery nor engines, and finding 
that he could do no good by ramming with logs of timber, 
nor by the use of iron bars, and iron crows, and such other 
means at hand, he had no way left him but to set one of 15 
the gates on fire, which he did. But the citizens well per- 
ceiving the danger, before the gate could be fully consumed, 
blocked up the gate, and some space about it on the inside, 
with faggots and other fuel, which they likewise set on fire, 
and so repulsed fire with fire ; and in the meantime raised 20 
up nunpiers of earth, and cast up deep trenches, to serve 
instead of wall and gate. And for the scaladoes, they had 
so bad success, as the rebels were driven from the walls 
with the loss of two hundred men. 

The King when he heard of Perkin's siege of Exeter, 25 
made sport with it, and said to them that were about him, 
that the King of rake-hells was landed in the west, and that 
he hoped now to have the honour to see him, which he 
could never yet do. And it appeared plainly to those that 
were about the King, that he was indeed much joyed with 30 
the news of Perkin's being in English ground, where he 
could have no retreat by land; thinking now, that he should 
be cured of those privy stitches, which he had long had 



i66 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

about his heart, and at some times broken his sleeps, in the 
midst of all his felicity. And to set all men's hearts on fire, 
he did by all possible means let it appear, that those that 
should now do him service to make an end of these troubles, 
5 should be no. less accepted of him, than he that came upon 
the eleventh hour, and had the whole wages of the day. 
Therefore now, like the end of a play, a great number came 
upon the stage at once. He sent the lord chamberlain, and 
the lord Brook, and Sir Rice ap Thomas, with expedite 

lo forces to speed to Exeter, to the rescue of the town, and to 
spread the fame of his own following in person with a royal 
army. The earl of Devonshire, and his son, with the 
Carews, and the Fulfords, and other principal persons of 
Devonshire, uncalled from the court, but hearing that the 

15 King's heart was so much bent upon this service, made 
haste with troops that they had raised, to be the first that 
should succour the city of Exeter, and prevent the King's 
succours. The duke of Buckingham Hkcwise, with many 
brave gentlemen, put themselves in arms, not staying either 

20 the King's or the lord chamberlain's coming on, but making 
a body of forces of themselves, the more to endear their 
merit ; signifying to the King their readiness, and desiring 
to know his pleasure. So that according to the proverb, in 
the coming down, every saint did help. 

25 Perkin, hearing this thunder of arms, and preparations 
against him from so many parts, raised his siege, and 
marched to Taunton ; beginning already to squint one eye 
upon the crown, and another upon the sanctuary : though 
the Cornish men were become like metal often fired and 

30 quenched, churlish, and that would sooner break than bow ; 
swearing and vowing not to leave him, till the uttermost 
drop of their blood were spilt. He was at his rising from 
Exeter between six and seven thousand strong, many having 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 167 

come unto him after he was set before Exeter, upon fame of 
so great an enterprise, and to partake of the spoil ; though 
upon the raising of the siege some did sHp away. When he 
was come near Taunton, he dissembled all fear, and seemed 
all the day to use diligence in preparing all things ready to 5 
fight. But about midnight, he fled with threescore horse to 
Bewdly in the New Forest, where he and divers of his 
company registered themselves sanctuary men, leaving his 
Cornish men to the four winds; but yet thereby easing them 
of their vow, and using his wonted compassion, not to be 10 
by when his subjects' blood should be spilt. The King as 
soon as he heard of Perkin's flight, sent presently five hun- 
dred horse to pursue and apprehend him, before he should 
get either to the sea, or to that same little island, called a 
sanctuary. But they came too late for the latter of these. 15 
Therefore all they could do, was to beset the sanctuary, and 
to maintain a strong watch about it, till the King's pleasure 
were farther known. As for the rest of the rebels, they, 
being destitute of tiieir head, without stroke stricken, sub- 
mitted themselves unto the King's mercy. And the King, 20 
who commonly drew blood, as physicians do, rather to save 
life than to spill it, and was never cruel when he was secure; 
now he saw the danger was past, pardoned them all in the 
end, except some few desperate persons, which he reserved 
to be executed, the better to set off his mercy towards the 25 
rest. There were also sent with all speed some horse to 
Saint Michael's mount in Cornwall, where the lady Catharine 
Gordon was left by her husband, whom in all fortunes she 
entirely loved ; adding the virtues of a wife to the virtues of 
her sex. The King sent in the greater diligence, not know- 30 
ing whether she might be with child, whereby the business 
would not have ended in Perkin's person. When she was 
brought to the King, it was commonly said, that the King 



i68 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

received her not only with compassion, but with affection; 
pity giving more impression to her excellent beauty. Where- 
fore comforting her, to serve as well his eye as his fame, he 
sent her to his Queen, to remain with her ; giving her very 
5 honourable allowance for the support of her estate, which 
she enjoyed both during the King's life, and many years 
after. The name of the White Rose, which had been given 
to her husband's false title, was continued in common speech 
to her true beauty. 

lo The King went forwards on his journey, and made a 
joyful entrance into Exeter, where he gave the citizens great 
commendations and thanks ; and taking the sword he wore 
from his side, he gave it to the mayor, and commanded it 
should be ever after carried before him. There also he 

15 caused to be executed some of the ringleaders of the Cor- 
nish men, in sacrifice to the citizens whom they had put in 
fear and trouble. At Exeter the King consulted with his 
council, whether he should offer life to Perkin if he would 
quit the sanctuary, and voluntarily submit himself The 

20 council were divided in opinion : some advised the King to 
take him out of sanctuary perforce, and to put him to death, 
as in a case of necessity, which in itself dispenseth with con- 
secrated places and things : wherein they doubted not also 
but the King should find the Pope tractable, to ratify his 

25 deed, either by declaration, or, at least, by indulgence. 
Others were of opinion, since all was now safe, and no far- 
ther hurt could be done, that it was not worth the exposing 
of the King to new scandal and envy. A third sort fell 
upon the opinion, that it was not possible for the King ever, 

30 either to satisfy the world well touching the imposture, or to 
learn out the bottom of the conspiracy, except by promise 
of life and pardon, and other fair means, he should get 
Perkin into his hands. But they did all in their preambles 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 169 

much bemoan the King's case, with a kind of indignation at 
his fortune ; that a Prince of his high wisdom and virtue, 
should have been so long and so oft exercised and vexed 
with idols. But the King said, that it was the vexation of 
God Almighty himself to be vexed with idols, and therefore 5 
that that was not to trouble any of his friends: and that for 
himself, he always despised them; but was grieved that they 
had put his people to such trouble and misery. But in con- 
clusion, he leaned to the third opinion, and so sent some to 
deal with Perkin: who seeing himself prisoner, and destitute 10 
of all hopes, having tried princes and people, great and 
small, and found all either false, faint, or unfortunate, did 
gladly accept of the condition. The King did also, while 
he was at Exeter, appoint the lord Darcy, and others com- 
missioners, for the fining of all such as were of any value, 15 
and had any hand or partaking in the aid or comfort of 
Perkin, or the Cornish men, either in the field or in the 
flight. 

These commissioners proceeded with such strictness 
and severity, as did much obscure the King's mercy in 20 
sparing of blood, with the bleeding of so much treasure. 
Perkin was brought into the King's court, but not to the 
King's presence ; though the King, to satisfy his curiosity, 
saw him sometimes out of a window, or in passage. He 
was in shew at liberty, but guarded with all care and watch 25 
that was possible, and willed to follow the King to London. 
But from his first appearance upon the stage, in his new 
person of a sycophant, or juggler, instead of his former per- 
son of a prince, all men may think how he was exposed to 
the derision, not only of the courtiers, but also of the com- 30 
mon people, who flocked about him as he went along ; that 
one might know afar ofl" where the owl was, by the flight of 
birds : some mocking, some wondering, some cursing, some 



I70 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

prying and picking matter out of his countenance and ges- 
ture to talk of: so that the false honour and respects which 
he had so long enjoyed, was plentifully repaid in scorn and 
contempt. As soon as he was come to London, the King 
5 gave also the city the solace of this may-game : for he was 
conveyed leisurely on horseback, but not in any ignominious 
fashion, through Cheapside and Cornhill, to the Tower; 
and from thence back again to Westminster with the churm' 
of a thousand taunts and reproaches. But to amend the 

ID show, there followed a little distance off Perkin, an inward 
counsellor of his, one that had been serjeant-farrier to the 
King. This fellow, when Perkin took sanctuary, chose 
rather to take an holy habit than an holy place, and clad 
himself like an hermit, and in that weed wandered about 

15 the country, till he was discovered and taken. But this 
man was bound hand and foot upon the horse, and came 
not back with Perkin, but was left at the Tower, and within 
few days after executed. Soon after, now that Perkin could 
tell better what himself was, he was diligently examined; 

20 and after his confession taken, an extract was made of such 
parts of them, as were thought fit to be divulged, which was 
printed and dispersed abroad : wherein the King did himself 
no right : for as there was a laboured tale of particulars, of 
Perkin's father and mother, and grandsire and grandmother, 

25 and uncles and cousins, by names and surnames, and from 
what places he travelled up and down ; so there was little 
or nothing to purpose of anything concerning his designs, 
or any practices that had been held with him; nor the 
duchess of Burgundy herself, that all the world did take 

30 knowledge of, as the person that had put life and being into 
the whole business, so much as named or pointed at. So 
that men missing of that they looked for, looked about for 

^ Cum choro. 



1497] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 171 

they knew not what, and were in more doubt than before : 
but the King chose rather not to satisfy, than to kindle 
coals. At that time also it did not appear by any new 
examinations or commitments, that any other person of 
quality was discovered or appeached, though the King's 5 
closeness made that a doubt dormant. 

About this time a great fire in the night-time suddenly 
began at the King's palace at Shene, near unto the King's 
own lodgings, whereby a great part of the building was con- 
sumed, with much costly household stuff; which gave the 10 
King occasion of building from the ground that fine pile of 
Richmond, which is now standing. 

Somewhat before this time also, there fell out a me- 
morable accident : There was one Sebastian Gabato, a 
Venetian, dwelling in Bristol, a man seen and expert in i^ 
cosmography and navigation. This man seeing the success, 
and emulating perhaps the enterprise of Christophorus Co- 
lumbus in that fortunate discovery towards the south-west, 
which had been by him made some six years before, con- 
ceited with himself, that lands might likewise be discovered 20 
towards the north-west. And surely it may be he had more 
firm and pregnant conjectures of it, than Columbus had of 
this at the first. For the two great islands of the old and 
new world, being, in the shape and making of them, broad 
towards the north, and pointed towards the south; it is 25 
likely, that the discovery first began where the lands did 
nearest meet. And there had been before that time a dis- 
covery of some lands, which they took to be islands, and 
were indeed the continent of America, towards the north- 
west. And it may be, that some relation of this nature 30 
coming afterwards to the knowledge of Columbus, and by 
him suppressed (desirous rather to make his enterprise the 
child of his science and fortune, than the follower of a 



172 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1497 

former discovery), did give him better assurance, that all was 
not sea, from the west of Europe and Africa unto Asia, than 
either Seneca's prophecy or Plato's antiquities, or the nature 
of the tides and landwinds, and the like, which were the 
5 conjectures that were given out, whereupon he should have 
relied : though I am not ignorant, that it was likewise laid 
unto the casual and wind-beaten discovery, a little before, of 
a Spanish pilot, who died in the house of Columbus. But 
this Gabato bearing the King in hand, that he would find 

ID out an island endued with rich commodities, procured him 
to man and victual a ship at Bristol, for the discovery of 
that island : with whom ventured also three small ships of 
London merchants, fraught with some gross and slight 
wares, fit for commerce with barbarous people. He sailed, 

15 as he affirmed at his return, and made a chart thereof, very 
far westwards, with a quarter of the north, on the north side 
of Tierra de Labrador, until he came to the latitude of sixty 
seven degrees and a half, finding the seas still open. It is 
certain also, that the King's fortune had a tender of that 

20 great empire of the West Indies. Neither was it a refusal 
on the King's part, but a delay by accident, that put by so 
gi-eat an acquest : for Christophorus Columbus, refused by 
the King of Portugal, who would not embrace at once both 
east and west, employed his brother Bartholomaeus Colum- 

25 bus unto King Henry, to negotiate for his discovery: and it 
so fortuned, that he was taken by pirates at sea, by which 
accidental impediment he was long ere he came to the 
King : so long, that before he had obtained a capitulation 
with the King for his brother, the enterprise by him was 

30 achieved, and so the West Indies by providence were then 
reserved for the crown of Castile. Yet this sharpened the 
King so, that not only in this voyage, but again in the six- 
teenth year of his reign, and Hkewise in the eighteenth 



1498] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 173 

thereof, he granted forth new commissions for the discovery 
and investing of unknown lands. 

In this fourteenth year also, by God's wonderful provi- 
dence, that bovveth things unto his will, and hangeth great 
weights upon small wires, there fell out a trifling and unto- c 
ward accident, that drew on great and happy effects. During 
the truce with Scotland, there were certain Scottish young 
gentlemen that came into Norham town, and there made 
merry with some of the English of the town : and having 
little to do, went sometimes forth, and would stand looking ^q 
upon the castle. Some of the garrison of the castle, ob- 
serving this their doing twice or thrice, and having not their 
minds purged of the late ill blood of hostility, either sus- 
pected them, or quarrelled them for spies : whereupon they 
fell at ill words, and from words to blows ; so that many i c 
were wounded of either side, and the Scottish men, being 
strangers in the town, had the worst ; insomuch that some 
of them were slain, and the rest made haste home. The 
matter being complained on, and often debated before the 
wardens of the marches of both sides, and no good order 20 
taken ; the King of Scotland took it to himself, and being 
much kindled, sent a herald to the King to make protesta- 
tion, that if reparation were not done, according to the 
conditions of the truce, his King did denounce war. The 
King, who had often tried fortune, and was inclined to 2r 
peace, made answer, that what had been done, was utterly 
against his will, and without his privity ; but if the garrison 
soldiers had been in fault, he would see them punished, and 
the truce in all points to be preserved. But this answer 
seemed to the Scottish King but a delay, to make the com- ^o 
plaint breathe out with time ; and therefore it did rather 
exasperate him than satisfy him. Bishop Fox, understand- 
ing from the King that the Scottish King was still discontent 



174 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1498 

and impatient, being troubled that the occasion of breaking 
of the truce should grow from his men, sent many humble 
and deprecatory letters to the Scottish King to appease him. 
Whereupon King James, mollified by the bishop's submis- 
5 sive and eloquent letters, wrote back unto him, that he was 
in part moved by his letters, yet he should not be fully 
satisfied, except he spake with him, as well about the com- 
pounding of the present differences, as about other matters 
that might concern the good of both kingdoms. The 

lo bishop, advising first with the King, took his journey for 
Scotland. The meeting was at Melross, an abbey of the 
Cistercians, where the King then abode. The King first 
roundly uttered unto the bishop his offence conceived for 
the insolent breach of truce, by his men of Norham castle : 

15 whereunto bishop Fox made such humble and smooth an- 
swer, as it was like oil into the wound, whereby it began to 
heal : and this was done in the presence of the King and 
his council. After, the King spake with the bishop apart, 
and opened himself unto him, saying, that these temporary 

20 truces and peaces were soon made, and soon broken, but 
that he desired a straiter amity with the King of England ; 
discovering his mind, that if the King would give him in 
marriage the lady Margaret, his eldest daughter, that indeed 
might be a knot indissoluble. That he knew well what 

25 place and authority the bishop deservedly had with his mas- 
ter : therefore, if he would take the business to heart, and 
deal in it effectually, he doubted not but it would succeed 
well. The bishop answered soberly, that he thought himself 
rather happy than worthy to be an instrument in such a 

30 matter, but would do his best endeavour. Wherefore the 
bishop returning to the King, and giving account what had 
passed, and finding the King more than well disposed in it, 
gave the King advice ; first to proceed to a conclusion of 



1499] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI L 175 

peace, and then to go on with the treaty of marriage by 
degrees. Hereupon a peace was concluded, which was 
pubhshed a little before Christmas, in the fourteenth year 
of the King's reign, to continue for both the Kings' lives, 
and the over-liver of them, and a year after. In this peace 5 
there was an article contained, that no Englishman should 
enter into Scotland, and no Scottishman into England, 
without letters commendatory from the Kings of either 
Nation. This at the first sight might seem a means to con- 
tinue a strangeness between the nations; but it was done to 10 
lock in the borderers. 

This year there was a^so born to the King a third son, 
who was christened by the name of Edmund, and shortly 
after died. And much about the same time came news of 
the death of Charles the French King, for whom there were 15 
celebrated solemn and princely obsequies. 

It was not long but Perkin, who was made of quicksilver, 
which is hard to hold or imprison, began to stir. For de- 
ceiving his keepers, he took him to his heels, and made 
speed to the sea-coasts. But presently all corners were laid 20 
for him, and such diligent pursuit and search made, as he 
was fain to turn back, and get him to the house of Bethle- 
hem, called the priory of Shene (which had the privilege of 
sanctuary), and put himself into the hands of the prior of 
that monastery. The prior was thought an holy man, and 25 
much reverenced in those days. He came to the King, and 
besought the King for Perkin's life only, leaving him other- 
wise to the King's discretion. Many about the King were 
again more hot than ever, to have the King to take him 
forth and hang him. But the King, that had a high stomach 30 
and could not hate any that he despised, bid, " Take him 
"forth, and set the knave in the stocks;" and so promising 
the prior his life, he caused him to be brought forth. And 



176 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1499 

within two or three days after, upon a scaffold set up in the 
palace-court at Westminster, he was fettered and set in the 
stocks for the whole day. And the next day after, the like 
was done by him at the cross in Cheapside, and in both 
5 places he read his confession, of which we made mention 
before ; and was from Cheapside conveyed and laid up in 
the Tower. Notwithstanding all this, the King was, as was 
partly touched before, grown to be such a partner with for- 
tune as nobody could tell what actions the one, and 

ID what the other owned. For it was believed generally, that 
Perkin was betrayed, and that this escape was not without 
the King's privity, who had him all the time of his flight in 
a line ; and that the King did this, to pick a quarrel to him 
to put him to death, and to be rid of him at once : but this 

15 is not probable. For that the same instruments who ob- 
served him in his flight, might have kept him from getting 
into sanctuary. 

But it was ordained, that this winding-ivy of a Plantagenet 
should kill the true tree itself For Perkin, after he had 

20 been a while in the Tower, began to insinuate himself into 
the favour and kindness of his keepers, servants to the 
lieutenant of the Tower Sir John Digby, being four in 
number; Strangeways, Blewet, Astwood, and Long Roger. 
These varlets, with mountains of promises, he sought to 

25 corrupt, to obtain his escape ; but knowing well, that his 
own fortunes were made so contemptible, as he could feed 
no man's hopes, and by hopes he must work, for rewards he 
had none, he had contrived with himself a vast and tragical 
plot ; which was, to draw into his company Edward Plan- 

30 tagenet earl of Warwick, then prisoner in the Tower; whom 
the weary life of a long imprisonment, and the often and 
renewing fears of being put to death, had softened to take 
any impression of counsel for his liberty. This young Prince 



1499] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 177 

he thought these servants would look upon, though not upon 
himself: and therefore, after that by some message by one 
or two of them, he had tasted of the earl's consent ; it was 
agreed that these four should murder their master the lieu- 
tenant secretly in the night, and make their best of such 5 
money and portable goods of his, as they should find ready 
at hand, and get the keys of the Tower, and presently let 
forth Perkin and the earl. But this conspiracy was revealed 
in time, before it could be executed. And in this again the 
opinion of the King's great wisdom did surcharge him with 10 
a sinister fame, that Perkin was but his bait, to entrap the 
earl of Warwick. And in the very instant while this con- 
spiracy was in working, as if that also had been the King's 
industry, it was fatal, that there should break forth a coun- 
terfeit earl of Warwick, a cordwainer's son, whose name was 15 
Ralph Wilford ; a young man taught and set on by an 
Augustin friar, called Patrick. They both from the parts of 
Suffolk cariie forwards into Kent, where they did not only 
privily and underhand give out, that this Wilford was the 
true earl of Warwick, but also the friar, finding some light 20 
credence in the people, took the boldness in the pulpit to 
declare as much, and to incite the people to come in to his 
aid. Whereupon they were both presently apprehended, 
and the young fellow executed, and the friar condemned to 
perpetual imprisonment. This also happening so oppor- 25 
tunely, to represent the danger to the King's estate from the 
earl of Warwick, and thereby to cover the King's severity 
that followed ; together with the madness of the friar so 
vainly and desperately to divulge a treason, before it had 
gotten any manner of strength ; and the saving of the friar's 30 
life, which nevertheless was, indeed, but the privilege of his 
order ; and the pity in the common people, which if it run 
in a strong stream, doth ever cast up scandal and envy, 

B. H. 12 



178 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1499 

made it generally rather talked than believed, that all was 
but the King's device. But howsoever it were, hereupon 
Perkin, that had offended against grace now the third time, 
was at the last proceeded with, and by commissioners of 
5 oyer and determiner arraigned at \\'estminster, upon divers 
treasons committed and perpetrated after his coming on 
land within this kingdom, for so the judges advised, for that 
he was a foreigner, and condemned, and a few days after 
executed at Tyburn ; where he did again openly read his 

lo confession, and take it upon his death to be true. This was 

- the end of this little cockatrice of a King, that was able to 
destroy those that did not espy him first. It was one of the 
longest plays of that kind that hath been in memory, and 
might perhaps have had another end, if he had not met with 

15 a King both wise, stout, and fortunate. 

As for Perkin's three counsellors, they had registered 
themselves sanctuary men when their master did ; and 
whether upon pardon obtained, or continuance within the 
privilege, they came not to be proceeded with. 

20 There were executed with Perkin, the mayor of Cork 
and his son, who had been principal abettors of his treasons. 
And soon after were likewise condemned eight other per- 
sons about the Tower conspiracy, whereof four were the 
lieutenant's men : but of those eight but two were executed. 

25 And immedi^ely after was arraigned before the Earl of Ox- 
ford, then for the time high steward of England, the poor 
Prince, the Earl of Warwick ; not for the attempt to escape 
simply, for that was not acted ; and besides, the imprison- 
ment not being for treason, the escape by law could not be 

30 treason, but for conspiring with Perkin to raise sedition, and 
to destroy the King : and the earl confessing the indict- 
ment, had judgment, and was shortly after beheaded on 
Tower-hill. 



1499] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 179 

This was also the end, not only of this noble and corn- 
miserable person Edward the earl of Warwick, eldest son to 
the duke of Clarence : but likewise of the hne male of the 
Plantagenets, which had flourished in great royalty and re- 
nown, from the time of the famous King of England, King 5 
Henry the second. Howbeit it was a race often dipped in 
their own blood. It hath remained since only transplanted 
into other names, as well of the imperial line, as of other 
noble houses. But it was neither guilt of crime, nor treason 
of state, that could quench the envy that was upon the King 10 
for this execution : so that he thought good to export it out 
of the land, and to lay it upon his new ally, Ferdinando 
King of Spain. For these two Kings understanding one 
another at half a word, so it was that there were letters 
shewed out of Spain, whereby in the passages concerning 15 
the treaty of marriage, Ferdinando had written to the King 
in plain terms, that he saw no assurance of his suc- 
cession, as long as the earl of Warwick lived; and that 
he was loth to send his daughter to troubles and dangers. 
But hereby, as the King did in some part remove the envy 20 
from himself; so he did not observe, that he did withal 
bring a kind of malediction and infausting upon the 
marriage, as an ill prognostic : which in event so far 
proved true, as both Prince Arthur enjoyed a very small 
time after the marriage, and the lady Catharine herself 25 
a sad and a religious woman, long after, when King Henry 
the eighth his resolution of a divorce from her was first 
made known to her, used some words, that she had not 
offended, but it was a judgment of God, for that her former 
marriage was made in blood ; meaning that of the earl of 3° 
Warwick. 

This fifteenth year of the King, there was a great 
plague both in London and in divers parts of the kingdom. 



12- 



i8o HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1499 

Wherefore the King, after often change of places, whether 
to avoid the danger of the sickness, or to give occasion 
of an interview with the archduke, or both, sailed over with 
his Queen to Calais. Upon his coming thither, the arch- 

5 duke sent an honourable embassage unto him as well to 
welcome him into those parts, as to let him know, that, if 
it pleased him, he would come and do him reverence. 
But it was said withal, that the King might be pleased to 
appoint some place, that were out of any walled town oi 

lo fortress, for that he had denied the same upon like occasion 
to the French King : and though, he said, he made a great 
difference between the two Kings, yet he would be loth 
to give a precedent, that might make it after to be expected 
at his hands, by another whom he trusted less. The King 

15 accepted of the courtesy, and admitted of his excuse, and 
appointed the place to be at Saint Peter's church without 
Calais. But withal he did visit the archduke with am- 
bassadors sent from himself, which were tlie lord Saint 
John, and the secretary ; unto whom the archduke did the 

20 honour, as going to mass at Saint Omer's, to set the lord 
Saint John on his right hand, and the secretary on his 
left, and so to ride between them to church. The day 
appointed for the interview the King went on horseback 
some distance from Saint Peter's church, to receive the 

2 c archduke: and upon their approaching, the archduke 
made haste to light, and offered to hold the King's stirrup 
at his alighting; which the King would not permit, but 
descending from horseback, they embraced with great af- 
fection; and withdrawing into the church to a place pre- 

30 pared, they had long conference, not only upon the 
confirmation of former treaties, and the freeing of com- 
merce, but upon cross marriages, to be had between the 
duke of York the King's second son, and the archduke's 



1499] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII i8i 

daughter; and again between Charles the archduke's son 
and heir, and Mary the King's second daughter. But these 
blossoms of unripe marriages were but friendly wishes, and 
the airs of loving entertainment ; though one of them came 
afterwards to conclusion in treaty, though not in effect. 5 
But during the time that the two Princes conversed and 
communed together in the suburbs of Calais, the demon- 
strations on both sides were passing hearty and affectionate, 
especially on the part of the archduke : who, besides that 
he was a Prince of an excellent good nature, being con- lo 
scious to himself how drily the King had been used by 
his council in the matter of Perkin, did strive by all means 
to recover it in the King's affection. And having also his 
ears continually beaten with the counsels of his father and 
father-in-law, who, in respect of their jealous hatred against 15 
the French King, did always advise the archduke to anchor 
himself upon the amity of King Henry of England ; was 
glad upon this occasion to put in ure and practice their 
precepts, calling the King patron, and father, and protector, 
these very words the King repeats, when he certified of 20 
the loving behaviour of the archduke to the city, and what 
else he could devise, to express his love and observance to 
the King. There came also to the King, the governor of 
Picardy, and the bailiff of Amiens, sent from Lewis the 
French King to do him honour, and to give him knowledge 25 
of his victory, and winning of the duchy of Milan. It 
seemeth the King was well pleased with the honours he 
received from those parts, while he was at Calais ; for he 
did himself certify all the news and occurrents of them in 
every particular, from Calais, to the mayor and aldermen 30 
of London, which, no doubt, made no small talk in the 
city. For the King, though he could not entertain the 
good-will of the citizens, as Edward the fourth did ; yet by 



i82 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1500 

affability and other princely graces did ever make very 
much of them, and apply himself to them. 

This year also died John Morton, archbishop of Can- 
terbury, chancellor of England, and cardinal. He was a 
5 wise man, and an eloquent, but in his nature harsh and 
haughty; much accepted by the King, but envied by the 
nobility, and hated of the people. Neither was his name 
left out of Perkin's proclamation for any good will, but 
they would not bring him in amongst the King's casting 

ID counters, because he had the image and superscription 
upon him of the Pope, in his honour of cardinal. He won 
the King with secrecy and diligence, but chiefly because 
he was his old servant in his less fortunes : and also for 
that, in his affections, he was not without an inveterate 

15 malice against the house of York, under whom he had 
been in trouble. He was willing also to take envy from 
the King, more than the King was willing to put upon 
him : for the King cared not for subterfuges, but would 
stand envy, and appear in any thing that was to his mind ; 

20 which made envy still grow upon him more universal, but 
less daring. But in the matter of exactions, time did after 
shew, that the bishop in feeding the King's humour did 
rather temper it. He had been by Richard the third 
committed, as in custody, to the duke of Buckingham, 

25 whom he did secretly incite to revolt from King Richard. 
But after the duke was engaged, and thought the bishop 
should have been his chief pilot in the tempest, the bishop 
was gotten into the cock-boat, and fled over beyond seas. 
But whatsoever else was in the man, he deserveth a most 

30 happy memory, in that he was the principal mean of join- 
ing the two Roses. He died of great years, but of strong 
health and powers. 

Th<^ next year, which was the sixteenth year of the 



1500] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 183 

King, and the year of our Lord one thousand five hundred, 
was the year of jubile at Rome. But Pope Alexander, 
to save the hazard and charges of men's journeys to Rome, 
thought good to make over those graces by exchange, 
to such as would pay a convenient rate, seeing they 5 
could not come to fetch them. For which purpose was 
sent into England, Jasper Pons, a Spaniard, the Pope's 
commissioner, better chosen than were the commis- 
sioners of Pope Leo afterwards employed for Germany : 
for he carried the business with great wisdom, and sem- 10 
blance of holiness : insomuch as he levied great sums 
of money within this land to the Pope's use, with 
little or no scandal. It was thought the King shared in 
the money. But it appeareth by a letter which cardinal 
Adrian, the King's pensioner, wrote to the King from 15 
Rome some few years after, that this was not so. For 
this cardinal, being to persuade Pope Julius, on the King's 
behalf, to expedite the bull of dispensation for the mar- 
riage between Prince Henry and the lady Catharine, finding 
the Pope difficile in granting thereof, doth use it as a 20 
principal argument concerning the King's merit towards 
that see, that he had touched none of those deniers which 
had been levied by Pons in England. But tliat it might 
the better appear, for the satisfaction of the common 
people, that this was consecrated money, the same nuncio 25 
brought unto the King a brief from the Pope, wherein the 
King was exhorted and summoned to come in person 
against the Turk : for that the Pope, out of the care of an 
universal father, seeing almost under his eyes the successes 
and progresses of that great enemy of the faith, had had 30 
in the conclave, and with the assistance of the ambassador, 
of foreign Princes, divers consultations about an holy war 
and a general expedition of Christian Princes against the 



i84 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1500 

Turk : wherein it was agreed and thought fit, that the 
Hungarians, Polonians, and Bohemians, should make a 
war upon Thracia; the French and Spaniards upon Graecia; 
and that the Pope, wilHng to sacrifice himself in so good a 
5 cause, in person and in comi)any of the King of England, 
the Venetians, and such other states as were great in mari- 
time power, would sail with a puissant navy through the 
Mediterranean unto Constantinople. And that to this end, 
his Holiness had sent nuncios to all Christian Princes ; as 

lo well for a cessation of all quarrels and differences amongst 
themselves, as for speedy preparations and contributions 
of forces and treasure for this sacred enterprise. 

To this the King, who understood well the court of 
Rome, made an answer rather solemn than serious : sig- 

1 5 nifying, 

''That no Prince on earth should be more forward and 
"obedient, both by his person, and by all his possible forces 
" and fortunes, to enter into this sacred war, than himself. 
" But that the distance of place was such, as no forces that 

2o "he should raise for the seas, could be levied or prepared 
" but with double the charge, and double the time at the 
"least, that they might be from the other Princes, that had 
" their territories nearer adjoining. Besides, that neither the 
" manner of his ships, having no galleys, nor the experience 

25 "of his pilots and mariners, could be so apt for those seas 

" as theirs. And therefore that his Holiness might do well 

" to move one of those other Kings, who lay fitter for the 

" purpose, to accompany him by sea. Whereby both all 

' things would be sooner put in readiness, and with less 

30 •' charge, and the emulation and division of command, 
"which might grow between those Kings of France and 
"Spain, if they should both join in the war by land upon 
" Graecia, might be wisely avoided : and that for his part he 



1500] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 185 

*' would not be wanting in aids and contribution. Yet not- 
" withstanding, if both these Kings should refuse, rather 
" than his Holiness should go alone, he would wait upon him 
" as soon as he could be ready : always provided, that he 
"might first see all differences of the Christian Princes 5 
" amongst themselves fully laid down and appeased, as for 
" his own part he was in none, and that he might have some 
"good towns upon the coast in Italy put into his hands, for 
" the retreat and safeguard of his men." 

With this answer Jasper Pons returned, nothing at all 10 
discontented : and yet this declaration of the King, as super- 
ficial as it was, gave him that reputation abroad, as he was 
not long after elected by the knights of Rhodes protector of 
their order; all things multiplying to honour in a prince, 
that had gotten such high estimation for his wisdom and 15 
sufficiency. 

There were these two last years some proceedings against 
heretics, which was rare in this King's reign, and rather by 
penances, than by fire. The King had, though he were no 
good schoolman, the honour to convert one of them by 20 
dispute at Canterbury. 

This year also, though the King were no more haunted 
with sprites, for that by the sprinkling, partly of blood, and 
partly of water, he had chased them away ; yet nevertheless 
he had certain apparitions that troubled him, still shewing 25 
themselves from one region, which was the house of York. 
It came so to pass, that the earl of Suffolk, son to Elizabeth 
eldest sister to King Edward the fourth, by John duke of 
Suffolk, her second husband, and brother to John earl of 
Lincoln, that was slain at Stoke-field, being of an hasty and 3° 
choleric disposition, had killed a man in his fury; whereupon 
the King gave him his pardon. But, either willing to leave 
a cloud upon him, or the better to make him feel his grace, 



1 86 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1501 

produced him openly to plead his pardon. This wrought 
in the earl, as in a haughty stomach it useth to do ; for the 
ignominy printed deeper than the grace. Wherefore he 
being discontent, fled secretly into Flanders unto his aunt 
5 the duchess of Burgundy. The King startled at it ; but, 
being taught by troubles to use fair and timely remedies, 
wrought so with him by messages, the lady Margaret also 
growing, by often failing in her alchemy, weary of her ex- 
periments ; and partly being a little sweetened, for that the 

lo King had not touched her name in the confession of Perkin, 
that he came over again upon good terms, and was recon- 
ciled to the King. 

In the beginning of the next year, being the seventeenth 
of the King, the lady Catharine, fourth daughter of Fer- 

15 dinando and Isabella, King and Queen of Spain, arrived in 
England at Plymouth the second of October, and was 
married to Prince Arthur in Paul's the fourteenth of Novem- 
ber following : the Prince being then about fifteen years of 
age, and the lady about eighteen. The manner of her 

20 receiving, the manner of her entry into London, and the 
celebrity of the marriage, were performed with great and 
true magnificence in regard of cost, shew, and order. The 
chief man that took the care was bishop Fox, who was not 
only a grave counsellor for war or peace, but also a good 

25 surveyor of works, and a good master of ceremonies, and 
any thing else that was fit for the active part, belonging to 
the service of the court or state of a great King. This 
marriage was almost seven years in treaty, which was in 
part caused by the tender years of the marriage-couple, 

30 especially of the Prince; but the true reason was, that these 
two Princes, being Princes of great policy and profound 
judgment, stood a great time looking one upon another's 
fortunes, how they would go ; knowing well, that in the 



1501] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 187 

mean time the very treaty itself gave abroad in the world 
a reputation of a strait conjunction and amity between 
them, which served on both sides to many purposes, that 
their several affairs required, and yet they continued still 
free. But in the end, when the fortunes of both the Princes 5 
did grow every day more and more prosperous and assured, 
and that looking all about them, they saw no better con- 
ditions, they shut it up. 

The marriage money the Princess brought, which was 
turned over to the King by act of renunciation, was two 10 
hundred thousand ducats : whereof one hundred thousand 
were payable ten days after the solemnization, and the other 
hundred thousand at two payments annual; but part of it to 
be in jewels and plate, and a due course set down to have 
them justly and indifferently prized. The jointure or advance- 15 
ment of the lady, was the third part of the principality of 
Wales, and of the dukedom of Cornwall, and of the earldom 
of Chester, to be after set forth in severalty : and in case 
she came to be Queen of England, her advancement was left 
indefinite, but thus; that it should be as great as ever any 20 
former Queen of England had. 

In all the devices and conceits of the triumphs of this 
marriage, there was a great deal of astronomy : the lady 
being resembled to Hesperus, and the Prince to Arcturus, 
and the old King Alphonsus, that was the greatest astro- 25 
nomer of Kings, and was ancestor to the lady, was brought 
in, to be the fortune-teller of the match. And whosoever 
had those toys in compiling, they were not altogether pe- 
dantical: but you may be sure, that King Arthur the Britain, 
and the descent of the lady Catharine from the house of 30 
Lancaster, was in no wise forgotten. But, as it should 
seem, it is not good to fetch fortunes from the stars : for 
this young Prince, that drew upon him at that time, not 



i88 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [150| 

only the hopes and affections of his country, but the eyes 
and expectation of foreigners, after a few months, in the 
beginning of April, deceased at Ludlow Castle, where he 
was sent to keep his resiance and court, as Prince of Wales. 
5 Of this Prince, in respect he died so young, and by reason 
of his father's manner of education, that did cast no great 
lustre upon his children, there is little particular memory : 
only thus much remaineth, that he was very studious and 
learned beyond his years, and beyond the custom of great 

lo Princes. 

The February following, Henry duke of York was 
created Prince of Wales, and earl of Chester and Flint : 
for the dukedom of Cornwall devolved to him by statute. 
The King also being fast-handed, and loth to part with a 

15 second dowry, but chiefly being affectionate both by his 
nature, and out of politic considerations to continue the 
alliance with Spain, prevailed with the Prince, though not 
without some reluctation, such as could be in those years, 
for he was not twelve years of age, to be contracted with 

20 the Princess Catharine : The secret providence of God or- 
daining that marriage to be the occasion of great events 
and changes. 

The same year were the espousals of James King of 
Scotland with the lady Margaret the King's eldest daughter; 

25 which was done by proxy, and published at Paul's cross 
the five and twentieth of January, and Te Deum solemnly 
sung. But certain it is, that the joy of the city thereupon 
shewed, by ringing of bells and bonfires, and such other 
incense of the people, was more than could be expected, 

30 in a case of so great and fresh enmity between the nations, 
especially in London, which was far enough off from feeling 
any of the former calamities of the war : and therefore 
might be truly attributed to a secret instinct and inspiring, 



1503] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 189 

which many times runneth not only in the hearts of Princes, 
but in the pulse and veins of people, toucHing the happiness 
thereby to ensue in time to come. This marriage was in 
August following consummated at Edinburgh : the King 
bringing his daughter as far as Colliweston on the way, 5 
and then consigning her to the attendance of the earl of 
Northumberland; who with a great troop of lords and 
ladies of honour brought her into Scotland, to the King 
her husband. 

This marriage had been in treaty by the space of almost to 
three years, from the time that the King of Scotland did 
first open his mind to bishop Fox. The sum given in 
marriage by the King, was ten thousand pounds : and the 
jointure and advancement assured by the King of Scotland, 
was two thousand pounds a year, after King James his 15 
death, and one thousand pounds a year in present, for the 
lady's allowance or maintenance. This to be set forth in 
lands, of the best and most certain revenue. During the 
treaty, it is reported, that the King remitted the matter to 
his council ; and that some of the table, in the freedom 20 
of counsellors, the King being present, did put the case ; 
that if God should take the King's two sons without issue, 
that then the kingdom of England would fall to the King 
of Scotland, which might prejudice the monarchy of Eng- 
land. Whereunto the King himself replied ; that if that 25 
should be, Scotland would be but an accession to England, 
and not England to Scotland, for that the greater would 
draw the less : and that it was a safer union for England 
than that of France. This passed as an oracle, and silenced 
those that moved the question. 30 

The same year was fatal, as well for deaths as mar- 
riages, and that with equal temper. For the joys and feasts 
of the two marriages were compensed with the mournings 



iQo HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1503 

and funerals of Prince Arthur, of whom we have spoken, 
and of Queen Elizabeth, who died in child-bed in the 
Tower, and the child lived not long after. There died also 
that year Sir Reginald Bray, who was noted to have had 
5 with the King the greatest freedom of any counsellor ; but 
it was but a freedom the better to set off flattery. Yet he 
bare more than his just part of envy for the exactions. 

At this time the King's estate was very prosperous; 
secured by the amity of Scotland, strengthened by that of 

^° Spain, cherished by that of Burgundy, all domestic troubles 
quenched, and all noise of war, like a thunder afar off, 
going upon Italy. Wherefore nature, which many times 
is happily contained and refrained by some bands of for- 
tune, began to take place in the King; carrying, as with 

15 a strong tide, his affections and thoughts unto the gathering 
and heaping up of treasure. And as Kings do more easily 
find instruments for their will and humour, than for their 
service and honour ; he had gotten for his purpose, or 
beyond his purpose, two instruments, Empson and Dudley, 

20 whom the people esteemed as his horse-leeches and shearers, 
bold men and careless of fame, and that took toll of their 
master's grist. Dudley was of a good family, eloquent, and 
one that could put hateful business into good language. 
But Empson, that was the son of a sieve-maker, triumphed 

25 always upon the deed done, putting off all other respects 
whatsoever. These two persons being lawyers in science, 
and privy counsellors in authority, as the corruption of the 
best things is the worst, turned law and justice into worm- 
wood rapine. For first, their manner was to cause divers 

Z^ subjects to be indicted of sundry crimes, and so far forth 
to proceed in form of law ; but when the bills were found, 
then presently to commit them : and nevertheless not to 
produce them in any reasonable time to their answer, but 



1503] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 191 

to suffer them to languish long in prison, and by sundry 
artificial devices and terrors to extort from them great 
fines and ransoms, which they termed compositions and 
mitigations. 

Neither did they, towards the end, observe so much as 5 
the half-face of justice, in proceeding by indictment ; but 
sent forth their precepts to attach men and convent them 
before themselves, and some others, at their private houses, 
in a court of commission ; and there used to shuffle up a 
summary proceeding by examination, without trial of jury; 10 
assuming to themselves there, to deal both in pleas of the 
crown, and controversies civil. 

Then did they also use to enthral and charge the sub- 
jects' lands with tenures in capite, by finding false offices, 
and thereby to work upon them for wardships, liveries^ pre- 15 
mier seisins, and alienations, being the fruits of those tenures, 
refusing, upon divers pretexts and delays, to admit men to 
traverse those false offices, according to the law. Nay, the 
King's wards, after they had accomplished their full age, 
could not be suffered to have livery of their lands, without 20 
paying excessive fines, far exceeding all reasonable rates. 
They did also vex men with informations of intrusion, upon 
scarce colourable titles. 

When men were outlawed in personal actions, they 
would not permit them to purchase their charters of pardon, 25 
except they paid great and intolerable sums ; standing upon 
the strict point of law, which upon outlawries giveth for- 
feiture of goods : nay, contrary to all law and colour, they 
maintained the King ought to have the half of men's lands 
and rents, during the space of full two years, for a pain in 30 
case of outlawry. They would also ruffle with jurors, and 
inforce them to find as they would direct, and, if they did 
not, convent them, imprison them, and fine them. 



192 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1503 

These and many other courses, fitter to be buried than 
repeated, they had of preying upon the people ; both Hke 
tame hawks for their master, and hke wild hawks for them- 
selves; insomuch as they grew to great riches and substance: 
5 but their principal working was upon penal laws, wherein 
they spared none, great nor small ; nor considered whether 
the law were possible or impossible, in use or obsolete : but 
raked over all old and new statutes, though many of them 
were made with intention rather of terror than of rigour, 

lo having ever a rabble of promoters, questmongers, and lead- 
ing jurors at their command, so as they could have any 
thing found either for fact or valuation. 

There remaineth to this day a report, that the King was 
on a time entertained by the earl of Oxford, that was his 

15 principal servant both for war and peace, nobly and sump- 
tuously, at his castle at Henningham. And at the King's 
going away, the earl's servants stood, in a seemly manner, 
in their livery coats, with cognisances, ranged on both sides, 
and made the King a lane. The King called the earl to 

20 him, and said, " My lord, I have heard much of your hos- 
" pitality, but I see it is greater than the speech : These 
"handsome gentlemen and yeomen, which I see on both 
"sides of me, are sure your menial servants." The earl 
smiled, and said, " It may please your grace, that were not 

25 " for mine ease : they are most of them my retainers, that 
"are come to do me service at such a time as this, and 
" chiefly to see your grace." The King started a little, and 
said, " By my faith, my lord, I thank you for my good 
"cheer, but I may not endure to have my laws broken in 

30 " my sight : my attorney must speak with you." And it is 
part of the report, that the earl compounded for no less 
than fifteen thousand marks. And to shew farther the 
King's extreme diligence, I do remember to have seen long 



1503] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 193 

since a book of acconipt of Empson's, that had the King's 
hand almost to every leaf, by way of signing, and was in 
some places postilled in the margin with the King's hand 
likewise, where was this remembrance. 

" Item, Received of such a one, five marks, for a pardon 5 
" to be procured ; and if the pardon do not pass, the 
" money to be repaid ; except the party be some 
" other ways satisfied." 

And over against this Memorandum, of the King's own hand, 

" Otherwise satisfied." 1° 

Which I do the rather mention, because it shews in the 
King a nearness, but yet with a kind of justness. So these 
little sands and grains of gold and silver, as it seemeth, 
helped not a httle to make up the great heap and bank. 

But meanwhile, to keep the King awake, the earl of 1 5 
Suffolk, having been too gay at Prince Arthur's marriage, 
and sunk himself deep in debt, had yet once more a mind 
to be a knight-errant, and to seek adventures in foreign 
parts ; and taking his brother with him, fled again into 
Flanders. That, no doubt, which gave him confidence, was 20 
the great murmur of the people against the King's govern- 
ment : and being a man of a light and rash spirit, he thought 
every vapour would be a tempest. Neither wanted he some 
party within the kingdom : for the murmur of people awakes 
the discontents of nobles; and again, that calleth up com- 25 
monly some head of sedition. The King resorting to his 
wonted and tried arts, caused Sir Robert Curson, captain of 
the castle at Hammes, being at that time beyond sea, and 
therefore less likely to be wrought upon by the King, to fly 
from his charge, and to feign himself a servant of the earl's. 30 
This knight, having insinuated himself into the secrets of 
the earl, and finding by him upon whom chiefly he had 
B. H. 13 



T94 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1503 

either hope or hold, advertised the King thereof in great 
secrecy: but nevertheless maintained his own credit and in- 
ward trust with the earl. Upon whose advertisements, the 
King attached William Courtney earl of Devonshire, his 
5 brother-in-law, married to the lady Catharine, daughter to 
King Edward the fourth; William de la Pole, brother to the 
earl of Suffolk; Sir James Tirrel, and Sir John Windham, 
and some other meaner persons, and committed them to 
custody. George lord Abergavenny, and Sir Thomas Green, 

10 were at the same time apprehended; but as upon less sus- 
picion, so in a freer restraint, and were soon after delivered. 
The earl of Devonshire being interested in the blood of 
York, that was rather feared than nocent ; yet as one that 
might be the object of others' plots and designs, remained 

r 5 prisoner in the Tower, during the King's life. William de 
la Pole was also long restrained, though not so straitly. But 
for Sir James Tirrel, against whom the blood of the innocent 
Princes, Edward the fifth and his brother, did still cry fro??i 
wider the altar, and Sir John Windham, and the other 

2o meaner ones, they were attainted and executed ; the two 
knights beheaded. Nevertheless, to confirm the credit of 
Curson, who belike had not yet done all his feats of activity, 
there was published at Paul's cross, about the time of the 
said executions, the Pope's bull of excommunication and 

25 curse against the earl of Suffolk and Sir Robert Curson, and 
some others by name; and likewise in general against all 
the abettors of the said earl : wherein it must be confessed, 
that heaven was made too much to bow to earth, and re- 
ligion to policy. But soon after, Curson, when he saw 

30 time, returned into England, and withal into wonted favour 
with the King, but worse fame with the people. Upon 
whose return the earl was much dismayed, and seeing him- 
self destitute of hopes, the lady Margaret also, by tract of 



150f] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 195 

time and bad success, being now become cool in those at- 
tempts, after some wandering in France and Germany, and 
certain little projects, no better than squibs of an exiled 
man, being tired out, retired again into the protection of the 
archduke PhiHp in Flanders, who by the death of Isabella 5 
was at that time King of Castile, in the right of Joan his 
wife. 

This year, being the nineteenth of his reign, the King 
called his parliament : wherein a man may easily guess 
how absolute the King took himself to be with his parlia- 10 
ment, when Dudley, that was so hateful, was made speaker 
of the house of commons. In this parliament there were 
not made any statutes memorable touching public govern- 
ment. But those that were, had still the stamp of the 
King's wisdom and policy. 1 5 

There was a statute made for the disannulling of all 
patents of lease or grant, to such as came not upon lawful 
summons to serve the King in his wars, against the enemies 
or rebels, or that should depart without the King's licence; 
with an exception of certain persons of the long robe : 20 
providing nevertheless, that they should have the King's 
wages from their house, till their return home again. There 
had been the like made before for offices, and by this 
statute it was extended to lands. But a man may easily 
see by many statutes made in this King's time, that the 25 
King thought it safest to assist martial law by law of 
parliament. 

Another statute was made, prohibiting the bringing in 
of manufactures of silk wrought by itself, or mixt with any 
other thread. But it was not of stuffs of whole piece, for 30 
that the realm had of them no manufacture in use at that 
time, but of knit silk or texture of silk; as ribbons, laces, 
cauls, points, and girdles, &c. which the people of England 

1,3 — 2 



196 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [150f 

could then well skill to make. This law pointed at a true 
principle ; " That where foreign materials are but super- 
" fluities, foreign manufactures should be prohibited." For 
that will either banish the superfluity, or gain the manu- 
5 facture. 

There was a law also of resumption of patents of gaols, 
and the reannexing of them to the sheriffwicks; privileged 
officers being no less an interruption of justice, than pri- 
vileged places. 

10 There was likewise a law to restrain the by-laws, or 
ordinances of corporations ; which many times were against 
the prerogative of the King, the common law of the realm, 
and the liberty of the subject, being fraternities in evil. 
It was therefore provided, that they should not be put in 

15 execution, without the allowance of the chancellor, treasurer, 
and the two chief justices, or three of them, or of the two 
justices of circuit where the corporation was. 

Another law was, in effect, to bring in the silver of the 
realm to the mint, in making all clipped, minished, or im- 

20 paired coins of silver, not to be current in payments ; with- 
out giving any remedy of weight, but with an exception 
only of reasonable wearing, which was as nothing in respect 
of the uncertainty ; and so, upon the matter, to set the mint 
on work, and to give way to new coins of silver, which 

25 should be then minted. 

There likewise was a long statute against vagabonds, 
wherein two things may be noted ; the one, the dislike the 
parliament had of gaoling of them, as that which was charge- 
able, pesterous, and of no open example. The other, that 

30 in the statutes of this King's time, for this of the nineteenth 
year is not the only statute of that kind, there are ever 
coupled the punishment of vagabonds, and the forbidding 
of dice and cards, and unlawful games, unto servants and 



1504] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 197 

mean people, and the putting down and suppressing of 
alehouses, as strings of one root together, and as if the one 
were unprofitable without the other. 

As for riot and retainers, there passed scarce any par- 
liament in this time without a law against them ; the King 5 
ever having an eye to might and multitude. 

There was granted also that parliament a subsidy, both 
from the temporality and the clergy. And yet nevertheless, 
ere the year expired, there went out commissions for a 
general benevolence, though there were no wars, no fears. 10 
The same year the city gave five thousand marks, for con- 
firmation of their liberties ; a thing fitter for the beginnings 
of Kings' reigns, than the latter ends. Neither was it a 
small matter that the mint gained upon the late statute, 
by the recoinage of groats and half-groats, now twelve- 15 
pences and six-pences. As for Empson and Dudley's mills, 
they did grind more than ever: so that it was a strange 
thing to see what golden showers poured down upon the 
King's treasury at once: the last payments of the mar- 
riage-money from Spain; the subsidy; the benevolence ; 20 
the recoinage; the redemption of the city's liberties; the 
casualties. And this is the more to be marvelled at, be- 
cause the King had then no occasions at all of wars or 
troubles. He had now but one son, and one daughter 
unbestowed. He was wise ; he was of an high mind ; he 25 
needed not to make riches his glory ; he did excel in so 
many things else; save that certainly avarice doth ever 
find in itself matter of ambition. Belike he thought to 
leave his son such a kingdom, and such a mass of treasure, 
as he mi^ht choose his greatness where he would. 30 

This year was also kept the Serjeants' feast, which was 
the second call in this King's days. 

About this time Isabella Queen of Castile deceased : 



198 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1504 

a right noble lady, and an honour to her sex and times, 
and the corner-stone of the greatness of Spain that hath 
followed. This accident the King took not for news at 
large, but thought it had a great relation to his own affairs; 
c especially in two points : the one for example, the other 
for consequence. First, he conceived that the case of 
Ferdinando of Aragon, after the death of Queen Isabella, 
was his own case after the death of his own Queen ; and 
the case of Joan the heir unto Castile, was the case of his 

lo own son Prince Henry. For if both of the Kings had their 
kingdoms in the right of their wives, they descended to 
the heirs, and did not accrue to the husbands. And 
although his own case had both steel and parchment, 
more than the other, that is to say, a conquest in the 

le field, and an act of parliament, yet notwithstanding, that 
natural title of descent in blood did, in the imagination 
even of a wise man, breed a doubt, that the other two 
were not safe nor sufficient. Wherefore he was wonderful 
diligent to inquire and observe what became of the King 

20 of Aragon, in holding and continuing the kingdom of 
Castile ; and whether he did hold it in his own right ; or 
as administrator to his daughter; and whether he were 
like to hold it in fact, or to be put out by his son-in-law. 
Secondly, be did revolve in his mind, that the state of 

25 Christendom might by this late accident have a turn. 
For whereas before time, himself, with the conjunction of 
Aragon and Castile, which then was one, and the amity 
of Maximilian and Philip his son the archduke, was far 
too strong a party for France ; he began to fear, that now 

30 the French King, who had great interest in the affections 
of Philip the young King of Castile, and Philip himself, 
now King of Castile, who was in ill terms with his father- 
in-law about the present government of Castile, and thirdly, 



1504] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 199 

Maximilian, Philip's father, who was ever variable, and 
upon whom the surest aim that could be taken was, that 
he would not be long as he had been last before, would, 
all three being potent Princes, enter into some strait league 
and confederation amongst themselves : whereby though 5 
he should not be endangered, yet he should be left to the 
poor amity of Aragon. And whereas he had been here- 
tofore a kind of arbiter of Europe, he should now go less, 
and be over-topped by so great a conjunction. He had 
also, as it seems, an inclination to marry, and bethought 10 
himself of some fit conditions abroad : and amongst others 
he had heard of the beauty and virtuous behaviour of the 
young Queen of Naples, the widow of Ferdinando the 
younger, being then of matronal years of seven and twenty: 
by whose marriage he thought that the kingdom of Naples, 15 
having been a goal for a time between the King of Aragon 
and the French King, and being but newly settled, might 
in some part be deposited in his hands, who was so able 
to keep the stakes. Therefore he sent in embassage or 
message three confident persons, Francis Marsin, James 20 
Braybrooke, and John Stile, upon two several inquisitions 
rather than negotiations. The one touching the person 
and condition of the young Queen of Naples. The other 
touching all particulars of estate, that concerned the for- 
tunes and intentions of Ferdinando. And because they 25 
may observe best, who tliemselves are observed least, he 
sent them under colourable pretexts ; giving them letters 
of kindness and compliment from Catharine the Princess, 
to her aunt and niece, the old and young Queen of Naples, 
and delivering to them also a book of new articles of peace; 30 
which notwithstanding it had been delivered unto doctor 
de Puebla, the lieger ambassador of Spain here in England, 
to be sent; yet for that the King had been long without 



200 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [1504 

hearing from Spain, he thought good those messengers, 
when they had been with the two Queens, should Hke- 
wise pass on to the court of Ferdinando, and take a copy 
of the book with them. The instructions touching the 
c Queen of Naples were so curious and exquisite, being as 
articles whereby to direct a survey, or framing a parti- 
cular of her person, for complexion, favour, feature, stature, 
health, age, customs, behaviour, conditions, and estate, as, 
if the King had been young, a man would have judged 

lo him to be amorous; but, being ancient, it ought to be 
interpreted, that sure he was very chaste, for that he meant 
to find all things in one woman, and so to settle his affec- 
tions without ranging. But in this match he was soon 
cooled, when he heard from his ambassadors, that this 

r5 young Queen had had a goodly jointure in the realm of 
Naples, well answered -during the time of her uncle 
Frederick, yea and during the time of Lewis the French 
King, in whose division her revenue fell ; but since the 
time that the kingdom was in Ferdinando's hands, all was 

20 assigned to the army and garrisons there, and she received 
only a pension or exhibition out of his coffers. 

The other part of the inquiry had a grave and diligent 
return, informing the King at full of the present state of 
King Ferdinando. By this report it appeared to the King, 

25 that Ferdinando did continue the government of Castile, as 
administrator unto his daughter Joan, by the title of Queen 
Isabella's will, and partly by the custom of the kingdom, as 
he pretended. And that all mandates and grants were ex- 
pedited in the name of Joan his daughter, and himself as 

30 administrator, without mention of Philip her husband. And 
that King Ferdinando, howsoever he did dismiss himself of 
the name of King of Castile, yet meant to hold the kingdom 
without account, and in absolute command. 



1504] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 201 

It appeareth also, that he flattered himself with hopes, 
that King Philip would permit unto him the government of 
Castile during his life ; which he had laid his plot to work 
him unto, both by some counsellors of his about him, which 
Ferdinando had at his devotion, and chiefly by promise, that 5 
in case Philip gave not way unto it, he would marry some 
young lady, whereby to put him by the succession of Aragon 
and Granada, in case he should have a son ; and lastly, by 
representing unto him that the government of the Burgun- 
dians, till Philip were by continuance in Spain made as 10 
natural of Spain, would not be endured by the Spaniards. 
But in all those things, though wisely laid down and con- 
sidered, Ferdinando foiled ; but that Pluto was better to 
him than Pallas. 

In the same report also, the ambassadors being mean 15 
men, and therefore the more free, did strike upon a string 
which was somewhat dangerous ; for they declared plainly, 
that the people of Spain, both nobles and commons, were 
better affected unto the part of Philip, so he brought his 
wife with him, than to Ferdinando; and expressed the reason 20 
to be, because he had imposed upon them many taxes and 
tallages ; which was the King's own case between him and 
his son. 

There was also in this report a declaration of an over- 
ture of marriage, which Amason the secretary of Ferdinando 25 
had made unto the ambassadors in great secret, between 
Charles Prince of Castile and Mary the King's second 
daughter; assuring the King, that the treaty of marriage 
then on foot for the said Prince and the daughter of France, 
would break : and that she the said daughter of France 30 
should be married to Angolesme, that was the heir apparent 
of France. 

There was a touch also of a speech of marriage between 



202 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. [150J 

Ferdinando and Madame de Fois, a lady of the blood of 
France, which afterwards indeed succeeded. But this was 
reported as learned in France, and silenced in Spain. 

The King by the return of this embassage, which gave 
5 great light unto his affairs, was well instructed, and pre- 
pared how to carry himself between Ferdinando King of 
Aragon and Philip his son-in-law King of Castile ; resolving 
with himself to do all that in him lay, to keep them at one 
within themselves; but howsoever that succeeded, by amode- 

To rate carriage, and bearing the person of a common friend, to 
lose neither of their friendships ; but yet to run a course 
more entire with the King of Aragon, but more laboured and 
officious with the King of Castile. But he was much taken 
with the overture of marriage with his daughter Mary ; both 

15 because it was the greatest marriage of Christendom, and 
for that it took hold of both allies. 

But to corroborate his alliance with Philip, the \vinds 
gave him an interview : for Philip choosing the winter sea- 
son, the better to surprise the King of Aragon, set forth 

20 with a great navy out of Flanders for Spain, in the month 
of January, the one and twentieth year of the King's reign. 
But himself was surprised with a cruel tempest, that scat- 
tered his ships upon the several coasts of England. And 
the ship wherein the King and Queen were, with two other 

25 small barks only, torn and in great peril, to escape the fury 
of the weather thrust into Weymouth. King Philip himself, 
having not been used, as it seems, to sea, all wearied and 
extreme sick, would needs land to refresh his spirits, though 
it was against the opinion of his council, doubting it might 

30 breed delay, his occasions requiring celerity. 

The rumour of the arrival of a puissant navy upon the 
coast, made the country arm. And Sir Thomas Trenchard, 
with forces suddenly raised, not knowing what the matter 



150 J] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 203 

might be, came to Weymouth. Where understanding the 
accident, he did in all humbleness and humanity invite the 
King and Queen to his house; and forthwith despatched 
posts to the court. Soon after came Sir John Carew like- 
wise, with a great troop of men well armed ; using the like 5 
humbleness and respects towards the King, when he knew 
the case. King Philip doubting that they, being but sub- 
jects, durst not let him pass away again without the King's 
notice and leave, yielded to their intreaties to stay till they 
heard from the court. The King, as soon as he heard the 10 
news, commanded presently the earl of Arundel to go to 
visit the King of Castile, and let him understand that as he 
was sorry for his mishap, so he was glad that he had escaped 
the danger of the seas, and likewise of the occasion himself 
had to do him honour; and desiring him to think himself 15 
as in his own land ; and that the King made all haste pos- 
sible to come and embrace him. The earl came to him in 
great magnificence, with a brave troop of three hundred 
horse ; and, for more state, came by torch-light. After he 
had done the King's message, King Philip seeing how the 20 
world went, the sooner to get away, went upon speed to the 
King at Windsor, and his Queen followed by easy journeys. 
The two Kings at their meeting used all the caresses and 
loving demonstrations that were possible. And the King of 
Castile said pleasantly to the King, "that he was now pun- 25 
" ished for that he would not come within his walled town 
" of Calais, when they met last." But tlie King answered, 
" that walls and seas were nothing where hearts were open ; 
"and that he was here no otherwise but to be served." 
After a day or two's refreshing, the Kings entered into 30 
speech of renewing the treaty ; the King saying, that though 
King Philip's person were the same, yet his fortunes and 
state were raised : in which case a renovation of treaty was 



204 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [150^ 

used amongst Princes. But while these things were in 
handling, the King choosing a fit time, and drawing the 
King of Castile into a room, where they two only were 
private, and laying his hand civilly upon his arm, and 
5 changing his countenance a little from a countenance of en 
tertainment, said to him, " Sir, you have been saved upon my 
"coast, I hope you will not suffer me to wreck upon yours." 
The King of Castile asked him, "what he meant by that 
" speech ?" " I mean it," saith the King, "by that same hare- 

10 " brain wild fellow, my subject, the earl of Suffolk, who is pro- 
" tected in your country, and begins to play the fool, when 
" all others are weary of it." The King of Castile answered, 
" I had thought. Sir, your felicity had been above those 
" thoughts : but, if it trouble you, I will banish him." The 

1 5 King replied, " those hornets were best in their nest, and 
" worst when they did fly abroad ; and that his desire was 
"to have him delivered to him." The King of Castile 
herewith a little confused, and in a study, said, "That can I 
" not do with my honour, and less with yours ; for you will 

20 "be thought to have used me as a prisoner." The King 
presently said, " Then the matter is at an end : for I will 
" take that dishonour upon me, and so your honour is 
" saved." The King of Castile, who had the King in great 
estimation, and besides remembered where he was, and 

25 knew not what use he might have of the King's amity, for 
that himself was new in his estate of Spain, and unsettled 
both with his fcither-in-law and with his people, composing 
his countenance, said, " Sir, you give law to me, but so will 
" I to you. You shall have him, but, upon your honour, 

30 " you shall not take his life." The King embracing him, 
said, " Agreed." Saith the King of Castile, " Neither shall 
" it dislike you, if I send to him in such a fashion, as he 
" may partly come with his own good will." The King said, 



150f] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 205 

"It was well thought of; and if it pleased him, he would 
"join with him, in sending to the earl a message to that 
" purpose." They both sent severally, and mean while they 
continued feasting and pastimes. The King being, on his 
part, willing to have the earl sure before the King of Castile 5 
went ; and the King of Castile, being as wiUing to seem to 
be enforced. The King also, with many wise and excellent 
persuasions, did advise the King of Castile to be ruled by 
the counsel of his father-in-law Ferdinando ; a Prince so 
prudent, so experienced, so fortunate. The King of Castile 1 o 
who was in no very good terms with his said father-in-law, 
answered, "That if his father-in-law would suffer him to 
"govern his kingdoms, he should govern him." 

There were immediately messengers sent from both 
Kings, to recall the earl of Suffolk ; who upon gentle words 15 
used to him was soon charmed, and willing enough to re- 
turn ; assured of his life, and hoping of his liberty. He was 
brought through Flanders to Calais, and thence landed at 
Dover, and with sufficient guard delivered and received at 
the Tower of London. Meanwhile King Henry, to draw 20 
out the time, continued his feastings and entertainments, 
and after he had received the King of Castile into the fra- 
ternity of the Garter, and for a reciprocal had his son the 
Prince admitted to the order of the Golden Fleece, he 
accompanied King Philip and his Queen to the city of 25 
London; where they were entertained with the greatest 
magnificence and triumph, that could be upon no greater 
warning. And as soon as the earl of Suftblk had been con- 
veyed to the Tower, which was the serious part, the jollities 
had an end, and the Kings took leave. Nevertheless during 30 
their being here, they in substance concluded that treaty, 
which the Flemings term intercursus mains, and bears date 
at Windsor; for there be some things in it, more to the 



2o6 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1506 

advantage of the English, than of them ; especially, for that 
the free-fishing of the Dutch upon the coasts and seas of 
England, granted in the treaty of undecimo, was not by this 
treaty confirmed. All articles that confirm former treaties 
5 being precisely and warily limited and confirmed to matter 
of commerce only, and not otherwise. 

It was observed, that the great tempest which drove 
Philip into England, blew down the golden eagle from the 
spire of Paul's, and in the fall it fell upon a sign of the 

lo black eagle, which was in Paul's church-yard, in the place 
where the school-house now standeth, and battered it, and 
brake it down : \vhich was a strange stooping of a hawk 
upon a fowl. This the people interpreted to be an ominous 
])rognostic upon the imperial house, which was, by intcr- 

15 pretation also, fulfilled upon Philip the emperor's son, not 
only in the present disaster of the tempest, but in that that 
followed. For Philip arriving into Spain, and attaining the 
possession of the kingdom of Castile without resistance, in- 
somuch as Ferdinando, who had spoke so great before, was 

20 with difticulty admitted to the speech of his son-in-law, 
sickened soon after, and deceased. Yet after such time, as 
there was an observation by the wisest of that court, that if 
he had lived, his father would have gained upon him in that 
sort, as he would have governed his counsels and designs, 

25 if not his affections. By this all Spain returned into the 
power of Ferdinando in state as it was before ; the rather, 
in regard of the infirmity of Joan his daughter, who loving 
her husband, by whom she had many children, dearly well, 
and no less beloved of him, howsoever her father, to make 

30 Philip ill-beloved of the people of Spain, gave out that 
Philip used her not well, was unable in strength of mind to 
bear the grief of his decease, and fell distracted of her wits. 
Of which malady her father was thought no ways to en- 



1506] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI 1. 207 

deavour the cure, the better to hold his regal power in 
Castile. So that as the felicity of Charles the eighth was 
said to be a dream ; so the adversity of Ferdinando was 
said likewise to be a dream, it passed over so soon. 

About this time the King was desirous to bring into the 5 
house of Lancaster celestial honour, and became suitor to 
Pope Julius, to canonise King Henry the sixth for a saint; 
the rather, in respect of that his famous prediction of the 
King's own assumption to the crown. Julius referred the 
matter, as the manner is, to certain cardinals, to take the 10 
verification of his holy acts and miracles : but it died under 
the reference. The general opinion was, that Pope Julius 
was too dear, and that the King would not come to his 
rates. But it is more probable, that that Pope, who was 
extremely jealous of the dignity of the see of Rome, and of 1 5 
the acts thereof, knowing that King Heniy the sixth was 
reputed in the world abroad but for a simple man, was 
afraid it would but diminish the estimation of that kind of 
honour, if there were not a distance kept between innocents 
and saints. 20 

The same year likewise there proceeded a treaty of mar- 
riage between the King and the lady Margaret duchess 
dowager of Savoy, only daughter to Maximilian, and sister 
to the King of Castile ; a lady wise, and of great good fame. 
This matter had been in speech between the two Kings at 25 
their meeting, but was soon after resumed ; and therein was 
employed for his first piece the King's then chaplain, and 
after the great prelate, Thomas Wolsey. It was in the end 
concluded, with great and ample conditions for the King, 
but with promise de futuro only. It may be the King was 30 
the rather induced unto it, for that he heard more and more 
of the marriage to go on between his great friend and ally 
Ferdinando of Aragon, and Madame de Fois, whereby that 



2o8 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII [1506 

King began to piece with the French King, from whom he 
had been always before severed. So fatal a thing it is, for 
the greatest and straitest amities of Kings at one time or 
other, to have a little of the wheel : nay, there is a farther 

5 tradition in Spain, though not with us, that the King of 
Aragon, after he knew that the marriage between Charles 
the young Prince of Castile and Mary the King's second 
daughter went roundly on, which though it was first moved 
by the King of Aragon, yet it was afterwards wholly ad- 

To vanced and brought to perfection by Maximilian, and the 
friends on that side, entered into a jealousy, that the King 
did aspire to the government of Castilia, as administrator 
during the minority of his son-in-law ; as if there should 
have been a competition of three for that government ; 

15 Ferdinando, grandfather on the mother's side; Maximilian, 
grandfather on the father's side ; and King Henry, father- 
in-law to the young Prince. Certainly it is not unlike, but 
the King's government, carrying the young prince with him, 
would have been perhaps more welcome to the Spaniards 

20 than that of the other two. For the nobility of Castilia, 
that so lately put out the King of Aragon in favour of King 
Philip, and had discovered themselves so far, could not be 
but in a secret distrust and distaste of that King. And as 
for Maximilian, upon twenty respects he could not have 

25 been the man. But this purpose of the King's seemeth to 
me, considering the King's safe courses, never found to be 
enterprising or adventurous, not greatly probable, except he 
should have had a desire to breathe warmer, because he had 
ill lungs. This marriage with Margaret was protracted from 

30 time to time, in respect of the infirmity of the King, who 
now in the two and twentieth of his reign began to be 
troubled with the gout : but the defluxion taking also into 
his breast, wasted his lungs, so that thrice in a year, in a 



1507] niSrORV of king henry VIL 209 

kind of return, and especially in the spring, he had great 
fits and labours of the phthisic : nevertheless, he continued 
to intend business with as great diligence, as before in his 
health: yet so, as upon this warning he did hkewise now 
more seriously think of the world to come, and of making 5 
himself a saint, as well as King Henry the sixth, by treasure 
better employed, than to be given to Pope Julius : for this 
year he gave greater alms than accustomed, and discharged 
all prisoners about the city, that lay for fees or debts under 
forty shillings. He did also make haste with religious foun- 10 
dations ; and in the year following, which was the three and 
twentieth, finished that of the Savoy. And hearing also of 
the bitter cries of his people against the oppressions of 
Dudley and Empson, and their complices ; partly by devout 
persons about him, and partly by public sermons, the 15 
preachers doing their duty therein, he • was touched with 
great remorse for the same. Nevertheless Empson and 
Dudley, though they could not but hear of these scruples in 
the King's conscience ; yet, as if the King's soul and his 
money were in several offices, that the one was not to inter- 20 
meddle with the other, went on with as great rage as ever. 
For the same three and twentieth year was there a shar^) 
prosecution against Sir William Capel now the second time; 
and this was for matters of misgovernment in his mayoralty : 
the greater matter being, that in some payments he had 25 
taken knowledge of false moneys, and did not his diligence 
to examine and beat it out, who were the offenders. For 
this and some other things laid to his charge, he was con- 
demned to pay two thousand pounds ; and being a man of 
stomach, and hardened by his former troubles, refused to 30 
pay a mite ; and belike used some untoward speeches of 
the proceedings, for which he was sent to the Tower, and 
there remained till the King's death. Knes worth likewise, 

B. H 14 



210 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL [1508 

that had been lately mayor of London, and both his sheriffs, 
were for abuses in their offices questioned, and imprisoned, 
and delivered, upon one thousand four hundred pounds 
paid. Havvis, an alderman of London, was put in trouble, 
5 and died with thought and anguish, before his business 
came to an end. Sir Lawrence Ailmer, who had likewise 
been mayor of London, and his two sheriffs, were put to 
the fine of one thousand pounds. And Sir Lawrence, for 
refusing to make payment, was committed to prison, where 

10 he stayed till Empson himself was committed in his place. 

It is no marvel, if the faults were so light, and the rates 

so heavy, that the King's treasure of store, that he left at 

his death, most of it in secret places, under his own key 

and keeping, at Richmond, amounted, as by tradition it is re- 

15 ported to have done, unto the sum of near eighteen hundred 
thousand pounds sterling ; a huge mass of money even for 
these times. 

The last act of state that concluded this King's temporal 
felicity, was the conclusion of a glorious match between his 

20 daughter Mary, and Charles Prince of Castile, afterwards 
the great emperor, botli being of tender years : which treaty 
was perfected by bishop Fox, and other his commissioners 
at Calais, the year before the King's death. In which alli- 
ance, it seemeth, he himself took so high contentment, as in 

25 a letter which he wrote thereupon to the city of London, 
commanding all possible demonstrations of joy to be made 
for the same, he expresseth himself, as if he thought he had 
built a wall of brass about his kingdom : when he had for 
his sons-in-law, a King of Scotland, and a prince of Castile 

30 and Burgundy. So as now there was nothing to be added 
to this great King's felicity, being at the top of all worldly 
bliss, in regard of the high marriages of his children, his 
great renown throughout Europe, and his scarce credible 



1509] HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 211 

riches, and the perpetual constancy of his prosperous suc- 
cesses, but an opportune death, to withdraw him from any 
future blow of fortune : which certainly (in regard of the 
great hatred of his people, and the title of his son, being 
then come to eighteen years of age, and being a bold Prince 5 
and liberal, and that gained upon the people by his very 
aspect and presence) had not been impossible to have come 
upon him. 

To crown also the last year of his reign, as well as his 
first, he did an act of piety, rare, and worthy to be taken 10 
into imitation. For he granted forth a general pardon : as 
expecting a second coronation in a better kingdom. He 
did also declare in his will, that his mind was, that restitu- 
tion should be made of those sums which had been unjustly 
taken by his officers. 15 

And thus this Solomon of England, for Solomon also 
was too heavy upon his people in exactions, having lived 
two and fifty years, and thereof reigned three and twenty 
years, and eight months, being in perfect memory, and in 
a most blessed mind, in a great calm of a consuming sick- 20 
ness passed to a better world, the two and twentieth of 
April 1508, at his palace of Richmond, which himself had 
built. 

THIS King, to speak of him in terms equal to his 
deserving, was one of the best sort of wonders ; a wonder 25 
for wise men. He had parts, both in his virtues and his 
fortune, not so fit for a common-place, as for observation. 
Certainly he was religious, both in his afi"ection and ob- 
servance. But as he could see clear, for those times, 
through superstition, so he would be blinded, now and 30 
then, by human policy. He advanced churchmen; he 
was tender in the privilege of sanctuaries, though they 

14—2 



212 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VJI. 

wrought him much mischief. He built and endowed 
many rehgious foundations, besides his memorable hospital 
of the Savoy: and yet was he a great almsgiver in secret; 
which shewed, that his works in public were dedicated 
5 rather to God's glory than his own. He professed always 
to love and seek peace : and it was his usual preface in 
his treaties, that when Christ came into the world, peace 
was sung ; and when he went out of the world, peace was 
bequeathed. And this virtue could not proceed out of 

lo fear or softness; for he was valiant and active, and there- 
fore, no doubt, it was truly Christian and moral. Yet he 
knew the way to peace was not to seem to be desirous to 
avoid wars : therefore would he make offers and fames 
of wars, till he had mended the conditions of peace. It 

15 was also much, that one that was so great a lover of peace, 
should be so happy in war. For his arms, either in foreign 
or civil wars, were never unfortunate ; neither did he know 
what a disaster meant. The war of his coming in, and 
the rebellions of the earl of Lincoln, and the lord Audley, 

20 were ended by victory. The wars of France and Scotland, 
by peaces sought at his hands. That of Britain, by acci- 
dent of the duke's death. The insurrection of the lord 
Lovel, and that of Perkin at Exeter, and in Kent, by flight 
of the rebels before they came to blows. So that his 

25 fortune of arms was still inviolate : the rather sure, for 
that in the quenching of the commotions of his subjects, 
he ever went in person : sometimes reserving himself to 
back and second his lieutenants, but ever in action ; and 
yet that was not merely forwardness, but partly distrust of 

30 others. 

He did much maintain and countenance his laws ; 
which, nevertheless, was no impediment to him to work 
his will : for it was so handled, that neither prerogative 



HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 213 

nor profit went to diminution. And yet as he would some- 
times strain up his laws to his prerogative, so would he also 
let down his prerogative to his parliament. For mint, and 
wars, and martial discipline, things of absolute power, he 
would nevertheless bring to parliament. Justice was well 5 
administered in his time, save where the King was party: 
save also, that the council-table intermeddled too much 
with 7nmm and Uiiun. For it was a very court of justice 
during his time, especially in the beginning; but in that 
part both of justice and policy, which is the durable part, 10 
and cut, as it were, in brass or marble, which is the making 
of good laws, he did excel. And with his justice, he was 
also a merciful prince : as in whose time, there were but 
three of the nobility that suffered ; the earl of Warwick, 
tlie lord chamberlain, and the lord Audley : though the 15 
first two were instead of numbers, in the dislike and ob- 
loquy of the people. But there were never so great re- 
bellions, expiated with so little blood, drawn by the hand 
of justice, as the two rebellions of Blackheath and Exeter. 
As for the severity used upon those which were taken in 20 
Kent, it was but upon a scum of people. His pardons 
went ever both before and after his sword. But then he 
had withal a strange kind of interchanging of large and 
inexpected pardons, with severe executions : which, his 
wisdom considered, could not be imputed to any incon- 25 
stancy or inequality ; but either to some reason which we 
do not now know, or to a principle he had set unto himself, 
that he would vary, and try both ways in turn. But the 
less blood he drew, the more he took of treasure. And, 
as some construed it, he was the more sparing in the one, 30 
that he might be the more pressing in the other ; for both 
would have been intolerable. Of nature assuredly he 
coveted to accumulate treasure, and was a little poor in 



214 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 

admiring riches. The people, into whom there is infused, 
for the preservation of monarchies, a natural desire to 
discharge their princes, though it be with the unjust charge 
of their counsellors and ministers, did impute this unto 
5 cardinal Morton and Sir Reginald Bray : who, as it after 
appeared, as counsellors of ancient authority with him, 
did so second his humours, as nevertheless they did temper 
them. Whereas Empson and Dudley that followed, being 
persons that had no reputation with him, otherwise than 

lo by the servile following of his bent, did not give way only, 
as the first did, but shape him way to those extremities, 
for which himself was touched with remorse at his death, 
and which his successor renounced and sought to purge. 
This excess of his had at that time many glosses and 

15 interpretations. Some thought the continual rebellions 
wherewith he had been vexed, had made him grow to 
hate his people : some thought it was done to pull down 
their stomachs, and to keep them low : some, for that he 
would leave his son a golden fleece : some suspected he 

20 had some high design upon foreign parts : but those per- 
haps shall come nearest the truth, that fetch not their 
reasons so far off; but rather impute it to nature, age, 
peace, and a mind fixed upon no other ambition or pursuit. 
Whereunto I should add, that having every day occasion 

25 to take notice of the necessities and shifts for money of 
other great Princes abroad, it did the better, by com- 
parison, set off to him the felicity of full coffers. As to 
his expending of treasure, he never spared charge which 
his afiairs required ; and in his buildings was magnificent, 

30 but his rewards were very limited : so that his liberality was 
rather upon his own state and memory than upon the 
deserts of others. 

He was of an high mind, and loved his own will and 



HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 215 

his own way : as one that revered himself and would reign 
indeed. Had he been a private man, he would have been 
termed proud. But in a wise Prince, it was but keeping 
of distance, which indeed he did towards all ; not admitting 
any near or full approach, either to his power, or to his 5 
secrets ; for he was governed by none. His Queen, not- 
withstanding she had presented him with divers children, 
and with a crown also, though he would not acknowledge 
it, could do nothing with him. His mother he reverenced 
much, heard little. For any person agreeable to him for 10 
society, such as was Hastings to King Edward the fourth, 
or Charles Brandon after to King Henry the eighth, he 
had none : except we should account for such persons, 
Fox, and Bray, and Empson, because they were so much 
with him: but it was but as the instrument is much with 15 
the workman. He had nothing in him of vainglory, but 
yet kept state and majesty to the height : being sensible, 
that majesty maketh the people bow, but vainglory boweth 
to them. 

To his confederates abroad he was constant and just, 20 
but not open. But rather such was his inquiry, and such 
his closeness, as they stood in the light towards him, and 
he stood in the dark to them. Yet without strangeness, 
but with a semblance of mutual communication of affairs. 
As for little envies, or emulations upon sovereign princes, 25 
which are frequent with many Kings, he had never any; 
but went substantially to his own business. Certain it is, that 
though his reputation was great at home, yet it was greater 
abroad. For foreigners that could not see the passages of 
affairs, but made their judgments upon the issues of them, 30 
noted that he was ever in strife, and ever aloft. It grew also 
from the airs which the princes and states abroad received 
from their ambassadors and agents here; which were attend- 



21 6 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

ing the court in great number: whom he did not only content 
with courtesy, reward, and privateness ; but, upon such con- 
ferences as passed with them, put them in admiration, to 
find his universal insight into the affairs of the world : which 
5 tliough he did suck chiefly from themselves, yet that which 
he had gathered from them all, seemed admirable to every 
one. So that they did write ever to their superiors in high 
terms, considering his wisdom and art of rule : nay, when 
they were returned, they did commonly maintain intelligence 

lo with him. Such a dexterity he had to impropriate to him- 
self all foreign instruments. 

He was careful and liberal to obtain good intelligence from 
all parts abroad : wherein he did not only use his interest in 
the liegers here, and his pensioners, which he had both in the 

1 5 court of Rome, and other the courts of Christendom ; but the 
industry and vigilance of his own ambassadors in foreign 
parts. For which purpose his instructions were ever ex- 
treme, curious and articulate ; and in them more articles 
touching inquisition, than touching negotiation : requiring 

2o likewise from his ambassadors an answer, in particular dis- 
tinct articles, respectively to his questions. 

As for his secret spials, which he did employ both at 
home and abroad, by them to discover what practices and 
conspiracies were against him, surely his case required it ; 

25 he had such moles perpetually working and casting to 
undermine him. Neither can it be reprehended ; for if 
spials be lawful against lawful enemies, much more against 
conspirators and traitors. But indeed to give them cre- 
dence by oaths or curses, that cannot be well maintained ; 

30 for those are too holy vestments for a disguise. Yet surely 
there was this farther good in his employing of these flies 
and familiars ; that as the use of them was cause that many 
cons]3iracies were revealed, so the fame and suspicion of 



HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 217 

them ke[)t, no doubt, many conspiracies from being at- 
tempted. 

Towards his Queen he was nothing uxorious, nor scarce 
indulgent ; but companiable and respective, and without 
jealousy. Towards his children he was full of paternal 5 
affection, careful of their education, aspiring to their high 
advancement, regular to see that they should not want of 
any due honour and respect, but not greatly willing to cast 
any popular lustre upon them. 

To his council he did refer much, and sat oft in person ; 10 
knowing it to be the way to assist his power, and inform his 
judgment. In which respect also he was fliirly patient of 
liberty, both of advice, and of vote, till himself were de- 
clared. He kept a strait hand on his nobility, and chose 
rather to advance clergymen and lawyers, which were more 1 5 
obse(juious to him, but had less interest in the people ; 
which made for his absoluteness, but not for his safely. 
Insomuch as, I am persuaded, it was one of the causes of 
his troublesome reign ; for that liis nobles, though they were 
loyal and obedient, yet did not co-operate with him, but let 20 
every man go his own way. He was not afraid of an able 
man, as Lewis the eleventh was : but contrariwise, he was 
served by the ablest men that were to be found; without 
which his affairs could not have prospered as they did. For 
war, Bedford, Oxford, Surrey, Daubeney, Brook, Poynings : 25 
for other affairs, Morton, Fox, Bray, the prior of Lanthony, 
Warham, Urswick, Hussey, Frowick, and others. Neither 
did he care how cunning they were that he did employ ; for 
he thought himself to have the master-reach. And as he 
chose well, so he held them up well ; for it is a strange 30 
thing, that though he were a dark prince, and infinitely sus- 
picious, and his times full of secret conspiracies and troubles; 
yet in twenty four years' reign, he never put down, or dis- 



2tS history GF king henry VII . 

composed counsellor, or near servant, save only Stanley the 
lord chamberlain. As for the disposition of his subjects in 
general towards him, it stood thus with him ; that of the 
three affections which naturally tie the hearts of the subjects 
5 to their sovereigns, love, fear, and reverence ; he had the 
last in height, the second in good measure, and so little of 
the first, as he was beholden to the other two. 

He was a Prince, sad, serious, and full of thoughts, and 
secret observations, and full of notes and memorials of his 

ro own hand, especially touching persons. As, whom to em- 
ploy, whom to reward, whom to inquire of, whom to beware 
of, what were the dependencies, what were the factions, and 
the like ; keeping, as it were, a journal of his thoughts. 
There is to this day a merry tale ; that his monkey, set on as 

1 5 it was thought by one of his chamber, tore his principal note- 
book all to pieces, when by chance it lay forth : whereat the 
court, which liked not those pensive accounts, was almost 
tickled with sport. 

He was indeed full of apprehensions and suspicions : 

20 but as he did easily take them, so he did easily check them 
and master them ; whereby they were not dangerous, but 
troubled himself more than others. It is true, his thoughts 
were so many, as they could not well always stand together; 
but that which did good one way, did hurt another. Neither 

25 did he at some times weigh them aright in their proportions. 
Certainly, that rumour which did him so much mischief, 
that the duke of York should be saved, and alive, was, at 
the first, of his own nourishing; because he would have 
more reason not to reign in the right of his wife. He was 

30 affable, and both well and fair-spoken ; and would use 
strange sweetness and blandishments of words, where he de- 
sired to effect or persuade any thing that he took to heart. 
He was rather studious than learned; reading most books 



HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 219 

that were of any worth, m the French tongue, yet he under- 
stood the Latin, as appeareth in that cardinal Adrian and 
others, who could very well have written French, did use to 
write to him in Latin. 

For his pleasures, there is no news of them : and yet by 5 
his instructions to Marsin and Stile, touching the Queen of 
Naples, it seemeth he could interrogate well touching beauty. 
He did by pleasures, as great Princes do by banquets, come 
and look a little upon them, and turn away. For never 
Prince was more wholly given to his affliirs, nor in them 10 
more of himself : insomuch as in triumphs of jousts and tour- 
neys, and balls, and masks, which they then called disguises, 
he was rather a princely and gentle spectator, than seemed 
much to be delighted. 

No doubt, in him, as in all men, and most of all in 15 
Kings, his fortune wrought upon his nature, and his nature 
upon his fortune. He attained to the crown, not only from a 
private fortune, which might endow him with moderation; but 
also from the fortune of an exiled man, which had quickened 
in him all seeds of observation and industry. And his times 20 
being rather prosperous than calm, had raised his confidence 
by success, but almost marred his nature by troubles. His 
wisdom, by often evading from perils, was turned rather 
into a dexterity to deliver himself from dangers, when they 
])ressed him, than into a providence to prevent and remove 25 
them afar off. And even in nature, the sight of his mind 
was like some sights of eyes ; rather strong at hand, than to 
carry afar oft'. For liis wit increased upon the occasion ; 
and so much the more, if the occasion were sharpened by 
danger. Again, whether it were the shortness of his fore- 30 
sight, or the strength of his will, or the dazzling of his sus- 
picions, or what it was ; certain it is, that the perpetual 
troubles of his fortunes, tliere being no more matter out of 



2 20 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

which they grew, could not have been without some great 
defects and main errors in his nature, customs, and pro- 
ceedings, which he had enough to do to save and help with 
a thousand little industries and watches. But those do best 
5 appear in the story itself. Yet take him with all his defects, 
if a man should compare him with the Kings his concur- 
rents in France and Spain, he shall find him more politic 
than Lewis the twelfth of France, and more entire and sin- 
cere than Ferdinando of Spain. But if you shall change 

lo Lewis the twelfth for Lewis the eleventh, who lived a little 
before, then the consort is more perfect. For that Lewis 
the eleventh, Ferdinando, and Henry may be esteemed for 
the ires ?nagi of Kings of those ages. To conclude, if this 
King did no greater matters, it was long of himself; for what 

15 he minded he compassed. 

He was a comely personage, a little above just stature, 
well and straight limbed, but slender. His countenance was 
reverend, and a little like a churchman : and as it was not 
strange or dark, so neither was it winning or pleasing, but 

20 as the face of one well disposed. But it was to the dis- 
advantage of the painter, for it was best when he spake. 

His worth may bear a tale or two, that may put upon 
him somewhat that may seem divine. When the lady 
Margaret his mother had divers great suitors for marriage, 

25 she dreamed one night, that one in the likeness of a bishop 
in pontifical habit did tender her Edmund earl of Richmond, 
the King's father, for her husband, neither had she ever any 
child but the King, though she had three husbands. One 
day when King Henry the sixth, whose innocency gave him 

30 holiness, was washing his hands at a great feast, and cast his 
eye upon King Henry, then a young youth, he said ; " This 
" is the lad that shall possess quietly that, that we now strive 
for." But that, that was truly divine in him, was that he 



HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 221 

had the fortune of a true Christian, as well as of a great 
King, in living exercised, and dying repentant : So as he 
had an happy warfare in both conflicts, both of sin, and the 
cross. 

He was born at Pembroke castle, and lieth buried at West- 5 
minster, in one of the stateliest and daintiest monuments of 
Europe, both for the chapel, and for the sepulchre. So that 
he dwelleth more richly dead, in the monument of his tomb, 
than he did alive in Richmond, or any of his palaces. I 
could wish he did the like in this monument of his fame. 10 



NOTES. 



Dedication, p. 3. Prince Charles, son of James I, and afterwards 
King Charles I. The History of Henry VH was written in 1622, three 
years hefore tlic death of James I. Prince Henry the eldest son of 
James I died in r6i2, whereupon Charles became Prince of Wales, &c. 

Prince of Wales. This title was first bestowed on the heir to the 
English throne by Edward I, who created his son Edward, born at 
Caernarvon, Prince of Wales in 1284. 

Duke cf Cornwall. This title was first given to the Prince of Wales 
when Edward HI created the Black Prince duke of Cornwall in 1335. 

Earl of Chester. This title existed in early times, and was not at 
first a title of the royal house, but was made such by Henry HI, who 
bestowed it on his son Prince Edward in 1245. On an attempt which 
was made during this reign to obtain it for other than the royal family 
see p. 125, 1. 4. 

Line r. // may please, ^c. The more usual order in modern times 
is. May it please. In the older form some expression, as I hope, is to be 
mentally supplied. For an example of a similar character see p. 136, 
line 27. 

4. last King of England, that was ancestor, dr'c. Heniy VH was 
father of Margaret, who married James IV of Scotland. Their son was 
James V, the father of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was mother of 
James VI of Scotland and I of England. 

6. doth unions, i. e. first, the union of the two families of York and 
Lancaster by the marriage of Henry VII, the representative of the 
Lancastrian house, with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, of the 
Yorkist line ; and secondly, in later times, the union of the two king- 
doms of England and Scotland under the same monarch, which was 
brought about by the succession of James I to the English throne on 
the death of Queen Elizabeth. Both these events may be referred to 
Henry VIL 

P. 4, line I. better for the liver, i. e. more comfortable for those who 
live in them. Uneventful times may be said to be such, while stirring 
times supply more details for the writer of history. The Latin text is : 
altcnim genus tempornm viventibus comniodius, alterum scribentibus g)a- 
tius. The noun liver is not of frequent occurrence. It is found in 



22 4 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VJL 

Shakespeare, Cymb. iii. 4. 15: "Prithee, think there's livers out of 
Britain." 

1. took. In modern EngHsh we should write taken. But this con- 
fused use as a participle of the form which has since been confined to 
the past tense was not uncommon in Bacon's time. Cf. Shakespeare, M. 
for M. II. 2. 74 : "and he that might the vantage best have took.^'' 

5. inco7n parable. It must be remembered that Bacon wrote this in 
the year after his condemnation by the House of Lords. King James 
had remitted both parts of the sentence, the fine and the imprisonment, 
and so the strength of this epithet may be due in some measure to that 
circumstance, but compare the dedication of the Advancement of Learn- 
ing, written in 1605, where even stronger language than that in our text 
appears. Cf. p. Z (Clarendon Press Series), " I am well assured that 
this which I shall say is no amplification at all, but a positive and 
measured truth ; which is that there hath not been since Christ's time 
any king or temporal prince which hath been so learned in all literature 
and erudition divine and human, &c." The dedication of the Authorized 
Version of the Bible to this same King is in a like laudatory and flatter- 
ing style, which was, as it seems, the common mode of addressing this 
pedantic monarch. 

7. pieces, i. e. pictures, keeping up the metaphor from painting 
which he had employed in the previous sentence. The Latin text has 
exejnplar. For the English word in this sense cf. Shaks. Timon, i. i. 28 : 
"Let's see your piece; 'Tis a good piece. ..what a mental power this 
eye shoots forth." 

10. Francis St Alban. Bacon was created Viscount St Alban Janu- 
ary 27th, 1620 — I. 

Text, p. 5. Henry the Seventh. The connection of the King with 
the house of Lancaster will be seen from the following table : 

Edward III 
I 
John of Gaunt and Catharine Swynford 

John Beaufort (earl of Somerset) 

Owen Tudor m Catharine widow John Beaufort (duke of Somerset) 
of Henry V 

Edmund Tudor married Margaret Beaufort 

' -^ -» 

Henry VII. 

John Beaufort (earl of Somerset) was one of several natural children 
of fohn of Gaunt by Catharine Swynford, who subsequently became his 
third wife. The children were called Beaufort from the name of the 
castle in France where they were born. These illegitimate children 
were legitimated by an Act of Parliament in 1397, and no restriction 
was then put upon their claim to the throne. 



NOTES. 225 

[.ine I. in fact. An English representation of the Latin phrase de 
facto, as opposed to de jure. See below, p, 15, 1. 11. 

1. regiment = ryx\e, government. Cf. the title of John Knox's work, 
"The first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of 
women," a work in which he assails the rule of the three Marys, Mary 
of Guise, queen-dowager and regent of Scotland ; Mary queen of Scots 
and queen Mary of England. The Latin has regimen. 

8. a devout mother. The name of Lady Margaret, the mother of 
Henry VII, still survives in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
in the titles bestowed upon the readers in divinity, the chairs for which 
she endowed. Christ's College and St John's in Cambridge are also 
monuments of her devotion. She was likewise a benefactress to the 
monasteries of Thorney, Peterborough, Croyland, Bourn and Spalding. 
Sec Cooper's Lady Margaret, lately edited by Professor Mayor. Her 
parentage is seen from the pedigree on the previous page. She was 
first given in marriage, at the age of nine, by her guardian William de 
la Pole, duke of Suffolk, to his son John who afterwards became duke 
of Suffolk. But when her guardian was attainted in 1450, this marriage 
was regarded as a nullity, and she afterwards married Edmund Tudor 
the father of Henry VII. Her husband dying before their son was 
born, she afterwards married lord Henry Stafford, a younger son of 
Humphrey Stafford first duke of Buckingham. This second husband 
died in 1482, and she soon after was married to Thomas, second lord 
Stanley. Lady Margaret was born in 1441 and died in 1509. 

13. the body of Richard. The body of the late king was stripped, 
laid across a horse behind a pursuivant-at-arms, and conveyed to 
Leicester, where, after it had been exposed for two days, it was buried 
with little ceremony in the church of the Grey Eriars. Ten years later 
Henry VII caused a tomb to be erected over the grave. 

14. diriges, funeral-hymns. I'he name is said to be derived from 
the Latin word dirige which occurs in the first line of a solemn Latin 
hymn of the Romish Church : Dirige gressus meos. Hence the modern 
word dirge. This etymology has been disputed but no better has been 
suggested in its place. The word occurs in Spenser, Mother Ilubbard's 
Tale, line 454: "Their diriges, their trentals and their shrifts." 

18. religious people. Monks and nuns are frequently thus spoken of, 
as being more devoted to a life of religion than others. Cf. Roy's 
"Read me and be not wroth" (Arber's Reprints), p. 152: "The 
apostles had all thynges in comone, lyke as soche clarkes and religyous 
saye they have nowe. In tokenynge whereof no man sayd...thys ys 
myne, so our clarkes and namely [i. e. especially] relygyous people when 
they will speak in terras of their religyon." 

P. 6, line ■2. M«w(?r//i)/ i?/"= inappropriate to, unmeet for, undeserved, 
in the sense of l)eing too bad for. Latin, injuriosus. Cf. Shakespeare. 
Richard III, i. 1. 88 : 

... doing worthy vengeance on thyself 
Which didst unworthy slaughter upon others. 

executioner of King Henry VI. Edward IV had the report cir- 
B. H. ^5 



226 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIl. 

ciliated that Henry VI died of grief, as had formerly been reported of 
Richard II ; but the writei's under the next dynasty all agree in stating 
that he was murdered, if not by the hand, at all events by the direction, 
of Richard, duke of Gloucester. 

4. contriver of the death of the duke of Claience. The reason why 
this has been laid at the door of the duke of Gloucester is doubtless 
because of the disputes between him and Clarence about the disposal of 
the wealth of the earl of Warwick, one of whose daughters they had 
each married, Clarence the eldest, and Gloucester the younger. 

5. his tzuo nepheivs, i.e. Edward V and Richard duke of York. 

7. failing of him = %\\o\x\(\ he die without issue. 

8. impoisoner of his wife. Richard's wife was Anne the younger 
daughter of Warwick the king-maker. She died i6th March, 1485. 
It was rumoured that her death was by poison, and that Richard wished 
to marry his niece Elizabeth of York, eldest daughter of Edward IV. It 
is said that in the festivities of the previous Christmas the princess 
Elizabeth had been dressed in robes of the same fashion and colour as 
those of the queen. Ratcliffe and Catesby, the king's confidants, are 
credited with having represented to Richard that this marriage of so 
near a kinswoman would be an object of horror to the people, and 
bring on him the condemnation of the clergy. 

9. degrees forbidden, i. e. degrees of kinship or affinity within which 
marriages are forbidden to take place. 

10. ittr military virtue approved. Even the writers who are loudest 
in the praise of Henry VII, do not deny to Richard the merit of great 
bravery. 

jealous... la^vmaker. In his address to his parliament Richard is 
reported to have said, "We be determined rather to adventure and 
commit us to the peril of our life and jeopardy of death, than to live 
in such thraldom and bondage as we have lived long time heretofore, 
oppressed and injured by extortions and new impositions against the 
laws of God and man, and liberty, old policy and laws of this realm 
wherein every Englishman is inherited." Among his good laws may 
1)6 mentioned one against the arbitrary exactions of money under the 
name of "Benevolences" which had been so common in the reign 
of Edward IV. He regulated the laws relating to bail, and enacted 
that the goods of suspected persons should not be seized before their 
conviction. He made good laws to secure the rights of buyers to any 
property which they had purchased, and facilitated the transfer of 
landed property by the act known as "the Statute of Fines." See 
additional Notes. 

13. parricides. This word derived honi pater, a fatiier, and ccedo, to 
kill, was originally applied to the nmrder of parents, but even in Latin 
its signification was extended till it came to be used of any murder. 

21. trains and mines, schemes and underhand plans. For trains 
cf. Shaksp. Macbeth, IV. 3. 118: 

Macbeth by many of these trains hath sought to win me. 

24. disorder s = x\o\.Qyxi living. Lingard sums up this part of the 
character of Edward IV thus: — "The love of pleasure was his ruling 



NOTES. 227 

passion. Few princes have been more magnificent in their dress, or 
more licentious in their amours ; few have mdulged more freely in the 
luxuries of the table." His voluptuous life is again mentioned by 
Bacon, p. 7. Towards the latter part of his life he became very 
unwieldy in body, and incapacitated for any active exertion. 

31. Piqiieny. (Modern orthography Picquigny.) On the Somme, 
a little N.W. of Amiens. The treaty made at this place was in 1475. 
Edward the IVth had been urged by Charles, duke of Burgundy, to 
prosecute his claims on France, and aid from Burgundy had been 
promised him. But the duke was prevented from fulfilling his promises, 
and Louis XI found means to persuade the King of England to return 
home. The treaty was made on a wooden bridge hastily thrown over 
the Somme, on which two lodges were erected for the royal interview. 
There was much murmuring in England at the turn of events, the King 
was accused of avarice, and his counsellers of having suffered themselves 
to be bribed by Louis. These are the circumstances of which Bacon 
states that Richard took advantage. 

P. 7, line 3. mean marriage. The wife of Edward IV was 
Elizabeth Wydeville, daughter of Sir Richard Wydeville, Lord Rivers, 
and his wife Jaquetta duchess of Bedford. She had previously been 
married to Sir John Grey a Lancastrian who was killed at the second 
battle of St Albans. Her marriage with Edward was kept secret from 
May 1 464 till the following September. When the King acknowledged 
liis wife there were many who murmured, and could ill disguise their 
jealousy at the elevation to the throne of one whose father a few years 
ago was no more than a simple knight. Sir Richard Wydeville had 
been created Lord Rivers in 1448. For further notice of this queen and 
her family see pp. 28, 29, and the notes thereon. 

7. brocage. This word is from the same root as broker. It wa, 
applied in contempt to the mean trafficking of a petty dealer, and 
tlien came to be applied to any mean arts or practices, as here to the 
designing conduct of the duke of Gloucester. Cf. Warner, Albion's 
England, VIII. 41 : 

And should he know (I shame he should) 

Of this your brokage base, 
He would acquaint you what it were 

Your sovereign to disgrace. 

13. able to trouble, i. e. enough to trouble, calculated to trouble. 
Latin posset perturbare. Cf. Bacon's Essays (the edition by Mr W. 
Aldis Wright is that which is always referred to, and I here acknow- 
ledge a multitude of obligations to his valuable volumes which it would 
be endless to mention as they recur). Essay XXix. p. 129, ** Donatives 
and largesses upon the disbanding of the armies were things able to 
enflame all men's courages. " 

19. precedent pact, i. e. previous compact or agreement. See p. 8, 
line 30. A compact of this kind had been known to the duke of 
Buckingham before his revolt against Richard III. The crown was 

15—2 



2 28 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

to be settled on Henry earl of Richmond and Elizabeth daughter of 
Edward TV, now the nearest representatives of the Houses of Lancaster 
and York. See Dugdale, Vol. i. p. i68. For an account of the first 
movement in this comjiact and of the Lady Margaret's consent thereto 
in the name of her son, see Lingard iv. pp. 119, 120. Grafton (p. 864) 
says that Henry w'len in Brittany took an oath to Elizabeth queen of 
Edward IV to marry her eldest daughter. 

21. by plea and arms. The plea which had always been put 
forward on behalf of the Lancastrian line was that there had been a 
wrong succession since the time of Edward I. The line of descent was 
as follows : — 

Henry HI 

I'^dward I Edmund, earl of Lancaster 

I 1 

Edward H Henry, earl of Lancaster 

I I 

Edward HI ITemy, duke of Lancaster 

I I 

John of Gaunt married Blanche, duchess of Lancaster 
u ^ J 

Henry IV. 

It was pretended that Edmund earl of Lancaster was the elder of 
the sons of Henry III, but being deformed, had been set aside by his 
own consent. Yet through Edmund's great-granddaughter Blanche 
Henry IV might on this ground claim to be the rightful heir, and set 
aside any of the children of Edward III, of whom only the family of 
Lionel duke of Clarence could claim before him. 

The claim by arms was through the dc J\icto Kings Henry IV, 
Henry V and Henry VI. 

30. plausible., here not used in any derogatory sense, Init meaning 
praiseworthy. Cf. Earle's " Microcosmdgraphie " (Arber's Reprints), 
p. Tor : "All men put on to him (the poor man) a kind of churlisher 
fashion, and even movo. plausible natures [are] churlish to him. 

33. al courtesy, i.e. by sufferance. We now call the titles given 
in compliment to younger .sons of nobility courtesy titles. 

P. 8, line 6. civil act of estates. The parliament was (and is) 
spoken of as the three estates of the realm, which were in these times 
Lords, Commons, and Convocation. A King by an act of estates is 
therefore a King by act of parliament 

16. a title co7ide7nned by parliament. This condemnation of the 
title of the House of Lancaster took place in the parliament which 
met in November, 1461, after the coronation of Edward the IVth. 
Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI were declared late, in fact, but 
not of right. Kings of England. A bill of attainder was passed at 
the same time whereby all the distinguished supporters of the House 
of Lancaster, as well as the King and his kinsfolk were adjudged 
to suffer the penalties of treason, the loss of their honours, the 
forfeiture of their estates and an ignominious death, l^ot. Pari, '^^■A, v. 
PP- 463, 476, 486. 



NOTES. 229 

19. m(/z^^?Vrt/^ = undoubted. It is worth while to notice the number 
of Latin words which were, by the revival of learning, imported into 
the English of this and the previous century, with a mere modification 
of termination. As the language advanced in vigour these fell away 
and had their places supplied by other words, less Latin in form. 
Cf. castcalties, 17, 28: prejudge, 2 1,30: person (in the sense of cha- 
racter), 23, 14: office, 38, 6, and many more. 

■25. Sir William Stanley, brother of Thomas, Lord Stanley, and 
so uncle to Lord Strange. Sir William Stanley was chamberlain of 
North Wales under Richard III and engaged in concert with Lord 
Strange and Sir John Savage to join the army of the earl of Richmond, 
which they eventually did, though they continued to wear the appear- 
ance of hostility till the field of Bosworth because Richard had posses- 
sion of the person of Lord Strange. More particulars concerning Sir 
William Stanley will be found on pp. 124, 125, and the notes thereon. 

28. and was found, i. e. and which (crown) was found. Both 
relatives and personal pronouns were frequently omitted in Bacon's 
time, though a sentence containing another nominative intervened be- 
tween the pronoun and its verb, where now for greater clearness we 
repeat them. Cf. infra, p. 24, line 18 : "She was a busy negociating 
woman, and in her withdrawing-chamber had the fortunate conspiracy 
for the King against King Richard the third been hatched ; which the 
King knew, and remembered perhaps but too well : and was {where 
now 7ve should say and she was)... extremely discontent with the King." 
Cf. also p. 72, line 16, where to make the sense clear then are must be 
inserted before no middle people. 

P. 9, line 5. forbore to use that claim. William the Contjueror 
put forward his claims to the P^nglish crown on the right he had by 
the bequest of Edward the Confessor and also his personal claim on 
Harold as his sworn man. See Freeman's Norman Conquest, Vol. III. 
]). 431. 

8. cast the die. This phrase in the active form is rare in English. 
The passive form, the die was cast, is common enougli. Cf. North's 
Plutarch, p. 549: " Crying out... let the die be cast. ..he (Julius Caesar) 
passed over with his army." 

lo. inta-reign. The more completely Latin form interregnum has, 
contrary to most other instances, won its way to general acceptance. 

15. an entertainer of fortune by the day, one who took fortune 
as it came without great attempts at provision for the distant future. 

21. three descents, i.e. Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, the 
three successive monarchs of the house of Lancaster. 

30. Sir Robert Willoughby, created in 1485 Lord Willoughby of 
Brook (p. 18). This nobleman commanded the forces .sent over in 
14S8 to the aid of the duke of Brittany. See additional Notes. 

33. Edtuard Plantagcnet. It may be convenient to give here a 
genealogical table which will make plain the relationship of all those 
persons'who were interested in the succession to the crown at the death 
of Edward the IVth and afterwards at the death of Richard III. 



230 



HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 




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NOTES. 231 

P. ro, line 7. doctor Shaw's tale at Pauls cross. While Richard 
duke of Gloucester was protector, and was preparing his way to the 
throne, he appointed Dr Shaw (the brother of the Lord Mayor) to 
preach at St Paul's Cross. He (says Lingard) "selected for his text the 
following passage of the Book of Wisdom (iv. 3) : ' Bastard slips shall 
not strike deep roots.' Having maintained from different examples 
that children were seldom permitted to enjoy the fruits of their father's 
iniquity, he proceeded to describe the well-known libertinism of the 
late King. " The preacher after this proceeded to state that previous 
to the King's marriage with Lady Grey, he had been privately married 
to Eleanor, the widow of the Lord Boteler of Sudely, and therefore 
the children bom to the King and Lady Grey were illegitimate and 
so could have no claim to the succession of their father. 

ro. ^'^= utterly. For this emphatic use of the adverb ever, 
cf. Shakespeare, Pericles, v. i. 204:' 

Truth can never be confirm'd enough, 
Though doubts did ever sleep. 

13. did use =-^^5 wont. Cf. Shaksp. J. Ca^s. i. 2. 72 : 

Were I a common laugher, or did use 
To stale with ordinary oaths my love. 

20. forwards. The s at the end of this and other similar words 
compounded with 7i<ard'\s the genitive case-ending. But the compounds 
of 7vn7'd are formed with the accusative ending as well, and so we 
have pairs of forms, forward and forwards, toward and towards, &c. 

24. aj = as if. Cf. Shaksp. Macbeth, li. 4. 5: "Thou seest the 
heavens, as troubled with man's act, threaten his bloody stage." 

P. II, line 8. assurance, security. Cp. p. 32, line 20, also Deu- 
teronomy xxviii. 66 : "Thou shalt fear dav and night, and shalt have 
none assurance of thy life." 

II. first upon an observation, i.e. first because he had noticed the 
circumstance, that Saturday was always a lucky day. For another mention 
of this idea of King Henry's and of an action regulated thereby see p. 
154, line 14. 

13. mayor. The orthography in the original edition is major, 
which exhibits the etymology better than our present form. The word 
is Lat. /wa/'^r = greater. The mayor at this time was Thomas Hill, 
who died afterwards in the sweating sickness (see p. 12), and Thomas 
Bretay and Richard Chester were the Sheriffs. 

companies of the city. At a meeting of the Common Council 31 
Aug. 1485, it was agreed that 435 persons representing 6(i companies 
of guilds should ride to meet the King in cloaks of bright murrey (i.e. 
dark red). The mayor and aldermen wore cloaks of scarlet. (See 
Materials for History of Henry VH, Rolls Series, pp. 4, 5.) 

19. keep j/a/^ = maintain dignity. The expression is a common one 
withBacon. Seep. 107, 1.8 and p. 146, 1. 5. Cf. Shaksp. Hen. V, i. 2. 273: 
"But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state. 
Be like a king, and shew my sail of greatness." 



232 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

25. bishop of London. The Bishop of London at this time was Thomas 
Kemp, who had been previously Archdeacon of Middlesex and Chan- 
cellor of York. The palace of the Bishop was then, as now, at Fulham. 

31. Britain, i.e. Brittany. This orthography has been preserved 
throughout, and Britons for the people of the duchy. 

P. 12, line 6. /^(?«/j-(?^<fr = although. A frequent use of the word 
in Bacon. See p. 14, 1. 28. Cf. Shaksp. Cymbeline, i. i. 64 : 
Howsoe'er 'tis strange, yet it is true. 

15. re/lect upon her, look towards, have regard unto her. The 
word is not common in this sense, and is no doubt due to the Latin 
text, which has "ne vota ordinum ullatenus in Elizabetham rcflecterenty 

19. sweating sickness. Two lord mayors (Thomas Hill and Sir 
William Stokker) and six aldermen died of this disease in one week in 
London (see Hall's Chronicle), and it is said that of those whom it at- 
tacked not more than one in a hundred escaped. The disease appeared 
afterwards in 1517, and occasioned also great mortality in Oxford in 1575. 

P. 13, line 3. surprise of nature, i e. an attack of sickness for which 
nature was unprepared and which therefore was the more severely felt. 

5. /^w/,f;- = temperature. The Latin text has A7;//*-r«/;/^«/'//;;/. The 
English word in this sense I have not found until a mucli later date, as 
Dryden, Ovid, Met. I. 59: 

Betwixt the extremes two happier climates hold 
The temper that partakes of hot and cold. 
See also Warton, Virgil, Georg. I. 4(S9. 

8. infinite persons. This adjective is more commonly used of things 
than of persons. The only passage in Shakesjiearc which at all corre- 
sponds with this use is Hen. VHI, in. i. 82, "Your hopes and friends 
are infinite," where, however, the adjective is as much connected with 
the first noun as the second. 

14. Simon and Jude's eve, i. e. 27 th of October. 

Ihomas Bourchier, Archbishop from 1454 to i486, previously 
Bishop of Worcester and then of Ely. He had taken a prominent pari 
in the stirring times of the Wars of the Roses, and had at one time 
effected a temporary reconciliation between the two rival Houses. He 
attended the Yorkist army to Northampton. He was also one of the 
ambassadors to. France at the peace of Picquigny. He was created a 
cardinal in 1467. He crowned both Richard HI and Henry VH, and 
officiated at the marriage of Henry. Fuller describes this his last official 
act as the holding of " the posie on which the White Rose and the Red 
were tied together." Bourchier was a benefactor to the Cathedral at 
Ely, and to poor scholars at both the Universities. 

16. Lambeth, where is the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

17. knights bannerets. This is the title given originally to knights 
who are created by the King in person, on the battle-field under the 
royal banner in a time of open war. If so created the kniglit ranks 
after knights of the Garter. If not created on the field (as was the 
case here) he ranks after baronets. For an account of such creations 
on the field see p. 155, at the conclusion of the Cornish rebellion by the 
victory at Blackheath. 



NOTES. 233 

-20. Jasper^ earl of Pembroke. This was Jasper Tudor the brother 
of Edmund Tudor, and second son of Owen Tudor. It was in his 
castle, at Pembroke, that Henry VII was born after his father's death, 
the Lady Margaret having retired thither. The title was extinct in 1497. 

22. Thomas, the lord Stanley. This was the third husband of the 
Countess of Richmond, the King's mother. He was the second Lord 
Stanley, and was third cousin of the Lady Margaret, so that a papal 
dispensation was needed to sanction the marriage. He had deserted the 
side of Richard III at Bosworth. He acted as high constable at the 
King's coronation and played a distinguished part during the whole of 
Henry the VHth's reign. 

23. Ed^vard Courtney In the patent of his creatimi he is described 
as Edward Courtenay, knight, heir male of Hugh Courtenay, whilom 
earl of Devon, and Margaret his wife, daughter of Elizabeth, daughter 
of Edward I. 

30. Innocent the eighth. Pope of Rome (1484 — 1492). 
Frederick the third. Emperor of Almain (1440 — 1493). 

Almain. This name for Germany, which the French still retain 
in U Allemagne, is derived from Alenianni tlie name of an ancient 
German people dwelling between the Danube, the Rhine and the Maine. 

31. Maximilian his son. King of the Romans . He became emperor 
in 1 493— 1 5 19, succeeding his father. The title King of the Romans 
belonged to the heir apparent to the empire of Germany, known in old 
times as the Holy Roman Empire. Alaximilian was at this time a 
widower : his wife had been Mary daughter of Charles the Bold, duke 
of Burgimdy. She left him a son and daughter, the latter betrothed to 
Charles King of France, and living in France for her education. See 

32. Charles the eight 'i, King op Fiance {i^d>^-—[^()%). He had been 
betrothed to the daughter of Maximilian, while he was dauphin, after 
the peace of Arras. 

33. Ferdinando and Isabella, Kings of Spain (1476 — i5i6). Fer- 
dinand was son of John, King of Aragon ; and on his marriage with 
Isabella, queen of Castile, the two monarchies of Spain were united 
and have never been severed. 

7amcs the third, A'ing of Scotland ( 1 460-88). For his fate, sec p. C)^. 

P. 14, line 6. yeomen of his guard. This is the first occasion of the 
appointment of a royal body guard. Grafton says of it : " Men thought 
that he learned this president [precedent] of the French King when he 
was in France, for men rcnitnihre not anye King of Englande before 
that tyme which used such a furniture of daylye souldiours." 

25. in his danger, at his mercy. Cf. Shakespeare, Merch. of 
Venice, IV. 1. 180: "Vou stand within his danger." 

29. reclaim = t,in\e, subdue, make gentle, one of the many technical 
terms which were used in hawking. Cf. Shakespeare, Rom. and Juliet, 
iv. 2. 47: "This wayward girl is so reclaimed." 

32. more than that = except thsLt. The J. a.iinha.s pra-ter</uam (/nod. 

P. 15, line 3. the act. The words of the bill are as follows, and 
quite bear out the statement in the text : "To the pleasure of Almighiy 



234 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

God, the wealth, prosperity, and surety of tliis realm of England, to 
the singular comfort of all the King's subjects of the same, and in 
avoidmg of all ambiguities and questions, be it ordained, stablished 
and enacted by the authority of this present Parliament that the in- 
heritance of the crowns of England and of France with all the pre- 
eminence and dignity royal to the same pertaining, and all other 
seigniories to the King belonging beyond the sea, with the appur- 
tenances thereto in any wise due or pertaining, be, rest, remain and 
abide in the most royal person of our new sovereign lord King Harry 
the Vllth and in the heirs of his body lawfully coming perpetually 
Avith the grace of God so to endure and in none others." 

12. fail; i.e. open. Latin in medio relinquebatur. 

P. 1 6, line 3. the King's party, i.e. the party of him who was now 
King Henry VII, but then earl of Richmond. 

excheqtier-chambe7\ This court has no original jurisdiction over 
crimes or offences, but only upon writs of error to rectify any injustice 
or mistake of the law. It is therefore called in the text the council 
chamber of the judges. 

26. corruption of blood. This was the effect of a bill of attainder 
till the reign of William IV. An attainted person in consequence 
could neither inherit lands from his ancestors, nor retain those of which 
he was already in possession nor transmit them to any heir. 

33. duke of Norfolk. This was John, Lord Howard, who had 
become in 1483 duke of Norfolk in right of his wife, Margaret, coheir 
of John Mowbray, duke of Norfolk. The title forfeited in 1485 was 
restored in 1513. 

Earl of Surrey. Thomas Howard, son of the above-named duke of 
Norfolk. He was created earl of Surrey when his father became duke. 
His dignity, now forfeited, was restored to him in 1489. See p. 66. 

P. 17, line I. Viscount Lovel. Francis, Lord Lovel. He had 
been created Viscount Lovel in 1482. He had been one of the chief 
advisers of Richard III. It was of him and Ratcliffe and Catesby, 
mentioned below, that the rhyme was made in Richard's reign. 

The rat, the cat, and Lovel our dog 
Rule all England under the hog. 

"By whiche," says Fabyan, fol. ccxxx., "was ment that Catisby, 
Ratclyffe and the Lord Lovell ruled the lande under the Kynge which 
bare the whyte Bore for his conysaunce." " But," adds Grafton, " because 
the first line ended in dog, the Metrician could not ende the second 
verse in Bore, but called the Bore an hog." The metrician was a 
certain William Colyngbourne who was executed for his metre. 

Lord Ferrers. Walter Devereux, who became lord Ferrers of 
Chartley in 1470 in right of his wife Anne, daughter of William, lord 
Ferrers. 

Lord Zouch. John le Zouch, lord Zouch of Ilarringworth. This 
barony, forfeited in 1485, was restored in 1509. 

Richard Ratcliffe. Knight of the body to Richard III. 

2. IVilliatn Catesby. Esquire of the body to Richard III. He 



NOTES. 235 

was one of the three persons executed by order of Henry VII, from the 
prisoners taken at Bosworth field. 

many others. The number of persons included in this act of 
attainder was thirty, see Lingard, iv. 132. 

5. stay. The Latin has temperantia. The English word, which I 
have not met with elsewhere in this sense, is used to indicate the know- 
ledge of when to stop in any business, a knowledge which Henry VII 
possessed in a high degree in the matter of the punishment of offenders. 

13. grace of restitution = zxi opportunity of repairing tlieir offence 
by submission, and of being restored to their possessions again. The 
Latin has restitiitionem for tun arum. 

28. casualties = \}M.Vig?> which had fallen jn, windfalls as we now call 
them. Lat. casualia. The English of Bacon's time was largely mixed 
with Latin words only Anglicised in the termination. This use of 
casualties seems to be peculiar to Bacon. 

31. form sake. The omission of the s of the^ genitive case in 
nouns followed by a word beginning with a sibilant letter can be readily 
understood, from the desire of getting rid of the too great amount of 
hissing sounds. In Skelton, i. 261, we have "For my fansy sake," 
and in Shaks. Love's L. L. iv. i. 37, "Only for praise sake when tliey 
strive to be lords o'er their lords." See Matzner, Eng. Grammatik, i. 235. 

32. reduce aliens, &>€. i.e. to make foreign-bom persons, althougli 
they have become naturalized in England, yet remain on the same 
footing as mere unnaturalized foreigners, in the matter of the customs 
and dues which they might have to pay. 

P. 18, line I. compositions, &c. The political economy of Henry 
the Vllth's time aimed at letting as little coin of the realm go out 
of the country as possible. It was therefore enacted that Italian and 
other merchants who brought the commodities of their own countries to 
England, should be fined if they did not expend the receipts in English 
products to carry away instead of coin. These fines were the cotJi- 
positions for not- employment. On the warrant of a similar statute 
Erasmus when returning to his own country was only allowed to carry 
six angels in money with him, the rest being seized for the royal 
exchequer. See Seebohm's Oxford Reformers, p. 161. 

9. Lord Chandos. His creation is dated 6 Jan. i486. He is 
therein called Philibert de Shaunde, and along with his title he is 
granted 100 marks out of the issues of the counties of Somerset and 
Dorset for the support of his estate. The preamble of the creation 
recites the exertions which had been made by the recipient on behalf 
of the restoration of Henry. The title became extinct with the death 
of the first earl. 

10. Lord Daubeney. This title descended through two generations 
and became extinct in 1548. This first lord Daubeney afterwards 
became deputy of Calais, see p. 76. 

14. Edward Stafford. This was the duke of Buckingham who 
was afterwards attainted and executed in 152 1. He was descended 
from Edward III both by father and mother. The subjoined table 
will show his close relationship to King Heniy VII, and the connection 
of both with the line of Edward III. 



2 36 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. 



S 



c/: 



j5 



p: o 






c 



o 



-a 






c 



— > s 



4; 
5 -^ if; 






J- 3 o 






•^3 



rt 









^ o 

c 






•SO 









~ i) i, _^ — 



NOTES. 237 

23. Marquis Darsd. This was Sir Thomas Grey (a son by her 
first marriage of Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV) who had been 
attainted by King Richard III in his first year, and was restored in 
\x6i. His petition to the Kin^ for reversal of the attainder sets forth 
that it had been incurred by " tne tnie service which he owed and did 
unto the now King's Grace." (See Materials for History of Hen. VII, 
Rolls Series, p. 138.) Before he became Marquis Dorset in 1475, he 
had been earl of Huntingdon, and previously Eord Grey of GVoby. 
Eor his further history see p. 34, and the notes thereon. 

Sir John BoKrcliicr (afterwards Lord Berners). His grandfather 
had been knight of the garter and constable of Windsor Castle. Sir 
John distinguished himself in 1495 in the suppression of the Cornish 
rebellion. He was made lieutenant of Calais by Henry VIII. He 
conducted the Princess Mary, sister to Henry VIII, to France when 
she was married to Louis XII. He died at Calais in 1532. We owe 
to him a noble translation of Froissart's Chronicle, printed in 1523. 
He also wrote several other works, among the rest "The History of 
Arthur of Lytell Brytaynu. " 

27. Master Bray. This was Sir Reginald Bray, who had taken 
.in active part in the plans for placing Henry on the throne. He was 
formerly steward of the household to Lady Margaret, and a trustee 
under her marriage with Lord Stanley. lie died in 1503. In Kippis's 
Biographia Britannica is a memoir of Sir Reginald Bray," il. 572. 

28. prcst, here = a loan. The word is very common (as might be 
expected) in the documents connected w ith the early part of this reign, 
but not quite in the sense in which it is here used. For examples of the 
word = loan, see North's Plutarch (1595), p. 638, "It chanced the 
King was without money : whereupon he sent to all his friends to 
take up money in prest, and among otlicrs unto Eumenes, of whom 
he requested three hundred talents. Eumenes lent him but a hundred." 
Cf. Cooper's Lady Margaret (Mayor), Glossary, p. 278. In the Ma- 
terials for History of Hen. VII, the word seems to imply a fine or 
deduction. See I. pp. 97, 262, 264, 265. Thus p. 262, " Mandate to 
the treasurer and chamberlains of the Exchequer to pay (without delay, 
upon the sight hereof, in ready money without prest or other charge) to 
Nicolas Warley of LondDU, goldsmith, &c." 

29. six thousand marks. The value of the mark was 13^-. ^d. So 
that the sum asked for was ;i^4000, of which the King obtained only 
one half It must be borne in mind that the value of money was then 
more than twelve times what it is now. See Froude, History of England, 
Vol. 1. p. 26. 

33- John Morton was now bishop of Ely, but in i486 succeeded 
liourchier as archbishop of Canterbury, which see he. held till his 
death in 1500. He commenced life as a lawyer, which may perhaps 
account for the position which he afterwards occupied among the 
influential advisers of Henry VII, He espoused the cause of the house 
of Lancaster, and was present at their defeat at the battle of Towton. 
He fled into Flanders with Queen Margaret, and did not return till the 
battle of Barnet. But when the Lancastrian cause was utterly over- 



238 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

thrown at Tewkesbury Morton submitted, and sent in his adhesion to 
the victorious family, and was advanced by Edward the IVtli in the 
most lavish manner. His preferments are far too numerous to register 
here. He was (among many other offices) Master of the Rolls in 1472, 
archdeacon of Winchester and archdeacon of Chester both in 1474, and 
liecame bishop of Ely in 1479. ^^ attended the deathbed of King 
Edward IV. He was arrested by Richard duke of Gloucester when 
protector, after that scene which occurred when Lord Hastings was 
seized and executed, which Shakespeare sets forth so graphically, 
Richard HI, Act 3, Sc. 4. After his arrest he was committed to the 
charge of the duke of Buckingham, and with him entered into a cor- 
respc5ndence with Lady Margaret for the purpose of raising Henry, 
earl of Richmond, to the throne. It was not long after tliis that 
Morton escaped from Brecknock, where he was in custody, and left 
England for P'landers. He did not join Henry in Brittany, but kept 
up a communication between England and Flanders, which enabled him 
to supply the earl of Richmond with valuable information. After the 
coronation of Henry VII, Morton's attainder was reversed, and on 
his return he was made one of the Privy Council, and throughout 
the whole reig^ of Henry was one of that king's chief counsellers. 
He was made Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canter- 
bury in the same year. On the dilemma termed Morton's fork see p. 
95, and for a notice of his death and character, ]). 182. 

P. 19, line I. Richard Fox. At tliis time bishop of Exeter and 
Lord Pri\'y Seal, l^ut afterwards promoted first to be bishop of 
Durham and afterwards bishop of Winchester. He was a trusted 
friend of Lady Margaret and was appointed one of her executors, and, 
with Morton, Bray and Daubeney, was of much influence witli 
Henry VII during his whole reign. 

12. car7-ied their reheard upon themselves. Those who received, 
as rewards for their services, rich bishoprics had reward enough therein, 
anil needed no more from the King's bounty. 

14. Jirst fruits {annates or priniitiit) was the value of every 
spiritual living by the year, which the Pope, claiming the disposition of 
all ecclesiastical livings within Christendom, reserved out of every living. 
As to what Pope first imposed first fruits historians do not agree. Black- 
stone ascribes the imposition to Pope Innocent IV. In the 34 Edward I 
in a parliament held at Carlisle a complaint was made of the intolerable 
oppressions by the papal legate, principally concerning first fruits, and 
the King hereupon denied the payment of first fruits, and the pope relin- 
quished his demand of first fruits of abbeys, in wliich parliament the first 
fruits for two years were granted to the King. There were many altera- 
tions in the period between that parliament and the 25 Henry VIII, 
when the first fruits were expressly annexed to the Crown. The text 
indicates that the first fruits of bishoprics were in Henry the Vllth's 
time paid to the Crown. For full particulars on this subject, see Bum's 
Eccl. Law (by Phillimore), Vol. 11. p. 273seqq. 

17. long expected and so much desired marriage. On the loth 
Dec. 1485, the Commons in full Parliament prayed the King "that he 



NOTES. 239 

would please to take tlie noble Lady Elizabeth, daughter of King 
Edward the IV, as his wife and consort. Whereupon the Lords Spiri- 
tual and Temporal being present at the same Parliament, rose from 
their seats, and standing before the King as he sat on his royal throne 
with their heads bowed and with lowly voice made unto the King the 
same request. To whom, with his own lips, he replied that he was 
content to proceed according to their desire and request." Trans- 
lated from Matenals for History of Hen. VII. (Rolls Series), Vol. i. 
p. 209. 

The marriage, which took place on the i8th January, 1485 — 6, was 
thought by some to have been too long delayed, and historians have 
declaimed against Henry on this account. He had pledged himself by 
a solemn oath taken on Christmas day 1483, at the church of Rennes, to 
marry the princess Elizabeth, or, in case of her death or previous union 
with another, her sister Cecilia. Dean Hook {Lives of Archbishops, 
V. 384) thinks that the delay was partly attributable to the prevalence 
of the sweating sickness. Perhaps also, as the papal dispensation was 
required for their marriage, the application may have consumed some 
part of the time. The text of this dispensation is given in Mat. for 
Hist, of Hen. VII, p. 392. It is noteworthy that in the same records 
very little is found in the way of entries for expenses on the marriage, 
though there are several connected with the queen's coronation, as we 
shall hereafter have to notice. 

24. no very indulgent husband. The charge of coldness and 
severity towards his consort, which has been so frequently urged by 
historians against Henry VII, is far from true (see Nicolas's Memoir 
of Elizabeth of York., LXXXII. Excerpta Historica, 86). "There is 
ample proof that he lived with all his family in the greatest hannony." 
Excerpta Historica, 286, quoted by Prof. Mayor in The Lady Mar- 
garet, p. 33. 

27. so...as=so...that. This is the usual form in r)acon's language. 
Cp. pp. 22. 1 : 28, 14, et passim, 

P. 20, line 5. the northern parts. Richard III. was crowned a second 
time at York, and the inhabitants had been instructed on that occasion 
to shew by their conduct how they rejoiced at his accession, so "that 
the southern lords might mark the receiving of their Graces." This 
second coronation was held to please the men of the North, among 
whom Richard had for some years been popular. See Lingard, iv. 117. 

10. oz'er-cast. The word is used as we now employ cast in the 
phrase "to cast accounts," and signifies, to add up to too large a total, 
to count too much on. The Latin text is in fortumr su(r supputatione 
et calculis judicio suo magfiopere falsus est. I have not found the 
English word elsewhere in this sense. 

14. Lord Lovel. Some interesting particulars connected with this 
nobleman's share in the rebellion may be gathered from the Paston 
Letters (Gairdner), Vol. ill. Letters 889 seqq. Lord Lovel had married 
Anne, the daughter of Alice Lady Fitzhugh, one of Paston's correspond- 
ents. In letter 890, he is said, contrary to the statement in our text, 
p. 21, line 8, to have fled into the Isle of I'Uy to provide, if he could. 



240 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI L 

means for escaping out of the country, or else to betake himself to the 
sanctuary again. But this may perhaps have been before he made his 
way into Lancashire. Of his death see p. 37 and the note there. 

r4. I In mphrey Stafford and Thomas Stafford. These were the sons 
of that Humphrey Stafford (Stafford and Hastang) who was slain by 
Jack Cade, 1450, and who was buried at Bromsgrove, with which place 
(see Nash's Worcestershire, i. 157) the family was connected. For the 
circumstances of the father's death see Lingard, iv. 49. The elder son 
Humphrey, who had fought for Richard HI at Bosworth, left a family 
of two sons and three daughters, but their property was seized to the 
crown in consequence of their father's attainder, and was granted to Sir 
Gilbert Talbot. Thomas the younger brother was the founder of the 
family of Stafford of Tottenho in Buckinghamshire. When these bro- 
thers were first seized they were brought to Worcester to be executed at 
once, but the abbot of Abingdon arrived at Worcester in time to 
prevent their immediate execution, and their case was brought in conse- 
cjuence, as is related by Bacon, before the King's Bench. 

25. had nothing in it of the jnain party of the house of York. The 
Latin text says " had no connection with the cause of the Yorkist 
family :" nee ad causani faniilicc Eboraeensis qiiidqnam pertinere. 

28. core, used for inidst^ as we now use it of the central seed-pods 
of apples and such fruits. The word itself is derived from a>;' = the 
heart. The Latin text is in medio popnli siln siispeeti. 

3[. luell assured, i. e. on whose fidelity he could rely. 

P. 21, line 6. the heralds 7cere the great ordnance. The proclama- 
tions of pardon which they made were the most effective engines of war 
that were employed. Lat. : heraldi enim pro tor mentis hellieis erant. 
The history of the word ordna)ice is peculiar, and somewhat like that of 
the word artillery. It is the French ordonna/iee, and was at first 
applied to the ordinaty men of arms of France when formed into cer- 
tain companies under particular orders by King Charles VH in 1444. 
These men must be archers, and the bow being in mediaeval warfare 
tlie most potent arn^, the name at first applied to bowmen, came after 
the introduction of cannon to be used for those engines. Artillery, used 
of bows and arrows, as in i Sam. xx. 40, " And Jonathan gave his 
artillery unto his lad," and in i Mace. vi. 51, has undergone a similar 
change of application. 

9. Sir Thomas Broughton. He was of Brougliton in Lancashire. 
Afterwards he was induced to join Lambert Simnel's party in 1487, 
and is said by some to have been slain at Stoke, by others to have 
escaped and lived in concealment with a retainer of his family in West- 
morland, and to have died without issue in 1495. His property was 
added to the possessions of the house of Stanley l)y Henry VH [Itine- 
rary of Lancashire, p. 322). 

14. despaired and dispersed. There may frequently be lound in 
Bacon's English traces of the influence of Euphuism in his emjiloyment 
of alliteration. A like tendency is to be found in much of the language 
of this period, and is very perceptible in the diction of the Book of 
Common Prayer. For another instance see p. 22, 1. 24, refresh and 



NOTES. 241 

reflect ; also p. 26, 1. 30, If the great ones were in Jvrwardncss the 
people were in fury. Examples may be found in every two or three 
pages. 

15. upon vie2i) of their privilege in the King's Bench, i. e. When 
the judges of the King's Bench had enquired whether the Sanctuary at 
Colnham was sufficient protection for such a crime as theirs, Lat. 
inspectd ejus loci chartd privilegii per Judices de Banco regis. 

When the judges were first consulted by the King whether Colnham 
had the privilege of a sanctuary, they replied that it was hard to give 
an opinion on a matter which they would afterwards have to decide 
judicially. This was the reason why the point was argued before all 
the judges, when the claim of sanctuary was rejected. 

18. Tyburn, a place in London at v/hich felons were generally 
executed. 

24. in honour of the British race... named Arthur. The famous 
King Arthur to whom allusion here is made was the son of King Uther 
Pendragon, and Igerna, a lady celebrated for her beauty, and who had 
foi-merly been the wife of Gorlois duke of Cornwall. Arthur was 
crowned King at the age of fifteen at Silchester by St Dubricius, and is 
celebrated as the hero of a long series of conquests, many of which are 
doubtless fabulous, but, as is intimated in the text, the marvellous 
history of this king has a substratum of truth. For a full knowledge 
of the many legends connected with him the student should read the 
Mort d' Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, now accessible in the Globe 
series. 

26. Britains, i. e. people of Britain. Bacon's orthography is here 
retained to prevent confusion, as in the text Britons always means 
people of Brittany. 

30. prejudge, i. c. entertain a prejudice against, doom prematurely. 
The* verb has well-nigh died out, but its noun prejudice remains. The 
verb is found Reliq. Wotton, p. 576: "Yet I will not anticipate or 
prejudge mine own mishaps." Bacon's Latin is tnale ominantur. 

P. 22, line 2. it hath fallen out often, i. e. there have been frequent 
instances of persons assuming a false name and character to gain a king- 
dom, as Bacon repeats on the next page. In ancient times the most 
well-known instance is that of the usurper Smerdis. He was a Magian 
named Oropastes, and after Cambyses King of Persia had murdered his 
brother and heir presumptive Smerdis, this impostor assumed the name 
of the murdered prince, and succeeded to the kingdom for a brief 
period. See Herod, in. c. 6r. In modern times the most conspicuous 
instances have been those of this reign of Henry VII. 

7. green in his estate, i. e. inexperienced in his new position as 
King. This metaphorical use of the word was common and classical 
enough in Shakespeare's time. Cf. Ant, and Cleop. i. 5. 74, 

" My salad days. 
When I was green in judgement." 

The Latin text has novus in regno sua. 

II. affected, clung to with liking. Hence the noun affection, which 

B. H. 16 



242 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

remains, though the verb has nearly passed out of use in this sense. 
The Latin "hzs prosequi. Cf. Shaks. Cym. v. 5, 37, 

"First she confessed she never loved you, only 
Affected greatness got by you, not you : 
Married your royalty." 

16. the co7'onation. This took place after an unaccountably long 
delay at Westminster, on the feast of St Catharine (Nov. •25), 1487. On 
the previous Friday the queen went in a triumphant procession by water 
from Greenwich to the tower of London. There was a grand corona- 
tion banquet afterwards in Westminster Hall. In the Mat. for Hist, of 
Hen. VII there is much more notice of the expenditure on the corona- 
tion than on the marriage of the Queen. 

The two following extracts from pp. 253, 2 = 4 may suffice as speci- 
mens. 

"Memorandum, that ther is due and owing unto John Bromhall, 
joynour, of London for canapye staves and in the tymber work of 
ii cherez (chairs) of estate, of hym boughte, ayenste [against] the coro- 
nacion of our souverayne lady the queue, the somme of xxuij^" 

"Memorandum that there is due and owing unto William Rowthe- 
welle, mercer, of London, for skarlet by hym delyvered unto the 
Kynges grete warderobe ayenst the coronacion of our souverayne lady 
the queue the somme of ^^54. \i. 9." The last item would represent 
a sum of more than six hundred pounds of our present money. 

70. r/<7j-£'/j' = secretly. The T^at. h'x^ claiiculum. For this sense cf. 
Shaks. Romeo, v. 3. 255, 

" Meaning to keep her closely at my cell." 

P. 23, line 2. had to his pupil. For this use of the preposition to 
where we should now s^y for or as; cf. Judges xvii. 13: "Then said 
Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have r. 
Levite to my priest." 

4. well favoured, i.e. of good looks. Cf. Gen. xxxix. 6: "Joseph 
was a goodly person, and well favoured." 

ID. in the manage — 2iS the plan Avas being carried out, in the pro- 
cess. The Latin is inter rem agendam cottsilium mutavit. 

I4. person. From Latin persona; which originally meant a mask 
with a mouthpiece contrived as a speaking-trumpet to aid the actor in 
making himself heard, [pei- through, and sonare—io sound): then any 
assumed character. 

19. drunk 7vith nervs and /rt'/X' = excited by fresh events and public 
rumours. 

■20. hath no appcarance=^oes not seem at all likely to occur. An 
attempt like this appears on the face of it improbable. Lat. viinime 
videtur probabile. 

P. 24, line ^. on the mother s side. His mother being the daughter 
of the Earl of Warwick and Salisbury the Kmg-maker. The son of 
Clarence received one part of his grandfather's title, the daughter, the 
Countess of Salisbury (who afterwards married Sir Richard Pole and 
one of whose sons became Cardinal Pole), the other. 



NOTES. 243 

13. Qiiccn dowager, i.e. Elizabeth the widow of Edward IV. She 
had lived at court up to this time. Lingard (iv. 136 noie) suspects that 
the whole story, told in the text of the arrest of the Queen dowager, 
has no other foundation than the fact that for the three or four last years 
of her life Queen Elizabeth chose to live in retirement at Bermondsey. 
This is the more probable from what Bacon says below, that there was 
no legal proceeding taken for her seclusion. 

15. withdrawing-chaiiibcr. This form is the original of the modern 
a''nz7£;/>?cr.;-^^;;^ = 'withdra wing-room, but by aphoeresis the first syllable 
has disappeared. 

18. and^vas = 2iXi^ she was. See note on p. 6. 1. 28. 

23. nor no more. Such instances of double negatives are not 
uncommon in the language of this period. See p. 71, 1. 6, and note 
there. 

26. rt/ ///j/^r;7= using him as their tool and instrument. The in- 
fmitive to make way depends on the clause it was the meaning of the 
better and sager sort. They intended to use Lambert as a means to 
overthrow the king, but did not intend to crown their idol. 

31. Bermondsey. This was a nunnery of the Cluniac order, founded 
in 1082, by Alwinus Child, a citizen of London. It was connected with 
the monastery of St Saviour's, Bermondsey. See Dugdale's Monasticon, 
Vol. I. p. 639. 

32. (f/(75^ — secret. See note on p. 22, 1. 20. The Latin has con- 
silium ostiis clans is habit am. 

P. 25, line 10. many clergymen. The clergy were exempt from 
temporal jurisdiction, by reason of a privilege called "benefit of clergy." 
This privilege was not entii-ely abolished till 1828, and was originally 
devised to shield from civil penalties all who could plead their clerkship 
{privilegiiun clericale), and in an age of very general ignorance all were 
held to be clerks who could read. Indeed lo such a length had the 
claim been allowed that the ability to repeat a single verse of the Psalter 
(Ps. li. i) was held sufficient proof of a man's clerkship, and this verse 
was hence called in common phrase the neck- verse, because the know- 
ledge of it saved the culprit's neck from the halter : see Sir Walter Scott's 
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto I, Stanza xxiv. 

"Letter nor line know I never a one 
Wer't my neck-verse at Hairibee." 

Hairibce was the place on the Scotch border at which prisoners taken in 
the border feuds were wont to be executed. See additional Notes. 

13. Stoke- field. The battle of Stoke was fought 16 June, 1487. 
For the family connection of the Earl of Lincoln, see Table in notes 
p. 230. 

20. it was voiced, i.e. noised abroad. Cf. Shaks. Timon, iv. 3. 8r, 

"Is this the Athenian minion whom the world 
Voiced so regardfully ? " 

28. it pieced better = \S2A a more apt arrangement, and suited the 
circumstances of the supposed escape of the Earl of Warwick. 

16 -2 



244 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

P. 26, line 2. affection to the house of York. Among the English 
settlers in Ireland the partisans of the house of York had maintained a 
decided ascendancy ever since the administration of Richard duke of 
York in that island in the reign of Henry the Vlth. The Butlers alone 
had dared to unsheathe the sword in favour of the Lancastrians. 
Richard duke of York was lord lieutenant in Ireland from 1449 — 145^. 
(Beatson's Political Index, ill. 295). 

15. Ireland. At the commencement of the reign of Henry VII, 
half Louth, half Dublin, half Meath and half Kildare were the only 
parts of Ireland which could be said to be really subject to the Englisli 
law. This district was called the "Pale." Outside these limits, the 
house of Fitzgerard (or Fitzgerald), sometimes spoken of as the Gerald- 
ines, exercised a rude supremacy in Leinster and Munster, the O'Briens 
in Clare, the Butlers in Kilkenny, and the O'Neils and O'Donnells in 
the north. 

18. Thomas Fitz-Gerald. His first appointment as Lord Deputy 
was in 147S. 

P. 27, line 6. had said enough for them, i.e. there was no need to 
regard the claim of these daughters, as by the act of Richard III in 
setting them aside their claim had been shown to be easily disposed of. 

26. Shene (now Richmond), a favourite residence of Henry VII, 
who, when it was destroyed by fire, built the present palace of Rich- 
mond. 

P. 28, line 31. a distressed suitor. \Vhen Edward IV visited the 
duchess of Bedford at Grafton, Elizabeth, the widow of Sir John Gray, 
and daughter of the duchess, seized the opportunity to appeal to the 
King for a reversal, in favour of her children, of the attainder of her 
husband who had fallen in fighting on the Lancastrian side at the second 
battle of St Albans. 

P. 29, line I. Kings flight, i.e. when Edward IV was obliged to 
flee, and Henry VI was restored in 1470. At that time Queen Eliza- 
beth took refuge in the sanctuary at Westminster. 

5. much = \ery. For an example of much thus used as qualifying 
an adjective, cf. Shakespeare, Troilus, iv. i. 45, 

..."I fear 
We shall be much unwelcome." 

6. her 07vn kindred. Richard Wydville was created Karl of Rivers 
in 1466; Anthony Wydville, his eldest son. Lord Scales in 1469; and 
many other promotions of the families of Gray and Wydville occur in 
the reign of Edward IV. 

10. lord Hastings. William, Lord Hastings of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouche, put to death by Richard duke of Gloucester in 1483. 

14. her brother beheaded. Lord Rivers, beheaded, at Pontefract in 
1483, by order of the duke of Gloucester. 

26. Queen's College in Cambridge, really founded by Queen Mar- 
garet of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, in 1448, but refounded by Queen 
Elizabeth wife of Edward IV, in 1465. Grafton adds to his account of 
the foundation : '* Queens College, a name surely meet for such a place 



NOTES, ' 245 

wherein scholars diligently studying in all doctrine and sciences, prove 
excellent clerks and come to great honours." 

P. 30, line 16. ceremony of a procession. As the procession was 
made to the cathedral of St Paul's, it might be looked upon as a reli- 
gious act, and if it were made with a mere pretender in the procession 
would be a sort of profanation of religion. ' 

26. John Earl of Lincoln. See the genealogical table notes 
p. 230. 

P. 3 1 , line I . incompetent pretexts = groundless reasons . 

16. refrain the business ^\io\d. back from the undertaking. We 
generally say 'refrain from.' For an example without this preposition see 
Shakespeare, 3rd pt. Hen. VI. 2. 11. no : 

..." Fur scarce I can refrain 
The execution of my big-swoln heart 
Upon that Clifford." 

24. leaving a correspondence = arranging for a means of communi- 
cation. 

P. 32, line 2. Charles, surnamed the Hardy. This duke of Bur- 
gundy {le 'J\'fneraire), to whom Margaret the younger daughter of 
Richard duke of York became the second wife, died 1477 (in the battle 
of Nancy), leaving an only daughter, Mary, who was married afterwards 
to Maximilian, King of the Romans, and the two children mentioned in 
the text, Philip and Margaret, were Maximilian's children. 

26. Martin .Swart. Ot this captain little more can be said than 
is found in the text. 

^- 3.^, l"^e 8. upon far better cards. The Latin is copiis multo 
majoribiis instructi, furnished with far more abundant resources. 

26. and in affection^ i.e. were [jossessed with desire. Lat. mnlta 
cupiditate feretrantur. 

P. 34, line 21. kept an dV7r=was disposed to listen kindly and re 
ceive him. Lat. aiirem ei benignam reservare. 

31. Walsingham in Norfolk, famous for the shrine of the Virgin 
Mary. There is an amusing account of a visit made to this shrine by 
Erasmus, given in his Colloquy of the Religious Filgrifnage. 

P. 35, line I. Cambridge. There is a mention of this visit in 
Leland's Collectanea, iv. 209, where it is said the King went from Cam- 
bridge by Huntingdon and Northampton to Coventry, and kept the 
feast of St George at the last-named town. See Cooper's Annals, 
I- ^33- 

3. Fouldrey, in the southern extremity of Furncss in Lancashire, 
called by Grafton "The pyle of Fowdrey." 

9. Earl of Oxford. ' This was John de Vere, who having suffered 
attainder in 1461, was restored in 1485, and made Admiral of England, 
Ireland and Acquitaine. See additional Notes. 

II. for discovery, to spy out the position of the foe. Lat. ad has- 
titim res explorandas. 

18. personate, to cause a good impression concerning their King. 
Lat. ut regis sui dec us tuerentur. 



246 HISTORY OF KIXG HENRY VIL 

28, their ai-my^ i.e. the army of Simnel and his supporters. 

P. 36, line 4. past retract = gon& beyond withdrawal. The noun 
is not common, the French form n/reai having soon supplanted the 
more Latin form of the word. 

15. missives, letters of summons. Shakespeare always uses this 
word of messe7tgers. Cf. Macbeth, i. V. 7, "While I stood rapt in the 
wonder of it came missives... who all-hailed me." 

18. Earl of Shreivsbiiry. This was George Talbot son of John, 
late earl of Shrewsbury. He had been a ward of the crown and licence 
of entry on his inheritance was granted to him in Nov. 1485. 

lord Strange, i.e. George Stanley, son of Thomas Stanley, step- 
father to Henry VH, on which account in grants made to him George 
Stanley is sometimes called the King's brother. See Mat. for Hist, of 
Hen. VII (Rolls Series), p. 296. 

-27. comviodity — w^Q., advantage. The word is common in this 
sense in Shakespeare. It occurs several times in a speech of the Bas- 
tard Faulconbridge, King John, ii. 2 ; the last words of which are 

" Since kings break faith upon commodity, 
Gain be my lord ! for I will worship thee." 

P. 37, line 4. tJiree battles, i.e. three divisions. Gf. Hen. V. iv. 

3- 69, 

" The French are bravely in their battles set, 
And will with all expedience charge on us." 

15. skein, a kind of knife or dagger used by the Irish and the 
Highlanders. Gaelic sgian. 

P. 38, line 7. ?nattaci7ia (Italian) is a pantomime, a mockery or 
satire. Lat. ludibrium. 

19. ^«^m(f= contrivance, plot. Cf. Shakespeare, Othello, I v. 2. 
219, *'Take me from this world with treachery, and devise engines 
for my life. " 

P. 39, line 5. martial laic, i.e. inflicting summary penalties, as is the 
custom in the army, where the offender is tried and punished imme- 
diately on the discovery of his offence. 

6. commission, i. e. in the ordinary way of justice, by appointing 
commissioners to try, in due form of law, some of those who had 
offended. 

P. 40, line 4. at the Cross. At St Paul's Cross, where special 
sermons were preached in the open air while the congregation sat under 
the shrouds which were attached to the side of the church. In this 
place were preached some of Latimer's sermons before King Fdward 
the Vlth, and Dr Shaw's sermon already noticed, p. 10, 1. 7, and the 
note thereon. 

17. Pope Innocent. Pope Innocent had granted a dispensation for 
the marriage, and therefore it might seem fit that he should be formally 
apprised of the coronation which placed the queen on the throne as 
queen consort with lier hu«band. 



NOTES. 247 

18. Another JEneas, alluding to the storm-beaten cotuse of that 
hero before his arrival in Italy as recited in Virgil's -^neid. 

^^. his ainbassador. This was the bishop of Imola, who was the 
legate of Innocent VIII. He first granted the needful dispensation, 
but Henry applied for another to the Pontiff himself, and the lapse of 
time which ensued, may perhaps explain this late acknowledgTiient of 
the ambassador's presence at the royal marriage. The dispensations 
are both given in extenso in Rymer, XII. pp. 294 and 313. 

31. much ///at/t' t?/z = received with great honour. Cf. Shakespeare, 
Cor. \\. 5, 203, " Why, he is so made on here within, as if he were 
son and heir to Mars." 

knowing himself to be lazy and unprofitable. Tlie pontificate of 
Innocent VIII was a time of great depravity, in which it was said 
that immunity from all punishment was to be bought, if only a sufficient 
price were offered. The feuds of the Colonna and Orsini factions were 
distracting Rome, and in 1485 the Pope increased the disorders by 
allowing all who had been banished for whatever cause to return. In 
consequence Rome became the haunt of villains of every kind, who 
eagerly flocked to avail themselves of the papal clemency. Robbery 
and muriler were frequent ; churches were plundered of their plate and 
ornaments; every morning's light discovered in the streets the bodies of 
men who had been assassinated during the night. After a time the 
Pope found it necessary to withdraw his clemency and banish offenders, 
but the spirit of his administration was sarcastically expressed by one 
who said, "God willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
should pay and live." Such a Pope deserves even stronger language 
than is used by Bacon. 

P. 41, line 3. sanctuary. According to the ancient customs of Eng- 
land, sanctuary denoted an asylum or place privileged for the safeguard 
of the lives of men guilty of capital crimes. Different degrees of pro- 
tection were afforded according to the character of the grant by which each 
sanctuary was established. Down to the time of Henry VIII all 
churches and churchyards were sanctuaries. It was required that the 
sanctuary-man should within forty days of his taking sanctuary go in 
sackcloth and declare his offence to the coroner. After which he made 
a solemn oath to abjure the realm, and to leave by the nearest port 
assigned to him. In his journey to the sea-side, which was to be made 
with a cross in his hand, he had the privilege of a sanctuary man. The 
abuses of these asylums had been very great, and were in some degree 
abated by the bull mentioned in the text. The Acts 27 Hen. VIII. 
c. 19, and 32 Hen. VIII. c. 12, made further curtailments of the privi- 
leges, and by 21 Jas. I. c. 28, they were abolished altogether. 

12. appoint /«■/// = appoint for himself. For an instance of this 
dative use cf. Shakespeare, Macb. v. 4. 4, "Let eveiy soldier hew him 
down a bough." 

20. James the third. This monarch had long cherished a marked 
partiality for the English, so marked indeed that it formed the prin- 
cipal of the charges alleged against him by the rebels, who afterwards 



248 . HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

deprived him of life. He had sent a deputation to assist at the corona- 
lion of Henry VH, 

23. Sir Richard Edgcombe. In the Materials for Hist, of Henry 
VII there are numerous entries of grants to Sir Richard Edgcombe, 
two of which may be quoted, p. 19, Sep. 20, 1485, "Grant for life to 
Richard Edgecombe gent, of the office of one of the chamberlains of the 
receipt of the exchequer, or of one of the chamberlains of the exchequer 
(viz. that office which William Catesby lately had by grant from King 
Edward IV), together with the appointment and ordering of one of the 
ushers of the exchequer when a vacancy shall happen." The next entry 
quoted shews the value set on the services of this knight. 7 June, i486, 
}). 448, " Grant in tail male, to Richard Edgecombe Knt. (in considera- 
tion of services as well in the parts beyond the sea as in the Kingdom 
of England) of the castle, honour and lordship or manor of Totenesse, 
the lordship and manor of Corneworthy, the manors of Huesshe and 
Lodeswell with their members and appurtenances," &c. He was also 
on the same day appointed controller of the King's mines of silver 
within the counties of Devon and Cornwall. 

P. 42, line 8. spread estate, i. e. more extended in territory, by the 
recovery of the provinces mentioned below in line 1 3. 

P. 43, line 6. obnoxious, going back to one of the original meanings 
of the Latin word <?(^«c'.;rzV/j- = indebted to. 

II. Leivis djike of Orleans. This prince was the first noble of the 
blood royal, and afterwards became Lewis XII of France. At this 
time he among others was a suitor for the hand of Anne of Brittany, 
whom he did afterwards marry when she was the widow of Charles VIII. 

27. z;/7tyrtr^«^.fj = confidential communication. 

P. 44, line I. Dnke of Britain. This was Francis, the last duke of 
Brittany. Grafton says that Charles "and his counsaile knew well that 
duke P>ancis was an impotent man sore diseased and well stricken in 
age, and had never an heir male, wherefore they determined by some 
means to compass the duchy of Brittany." Francis died in 1488. 

18. what Tiient tipon it in example =how much evil would come of 
such an example. The Lat. has c^uam perniciosi exempli res sit. 

20. comfort = ^\.rQng\\\Qu, support with their aid. This is the origi- 
nal force of the word, to give material support. Cf. Wickliffe's trans- 
lation of Is. xli. 7, " And he coumfortide hym with nailes that it shulde 
not be moved." For an example closely resembling that in the text, see 
Shaks. Tit. And. ii. 3. 209, " Why dost not comfort me and help me out?" 

P. 45, line 3. howsoever it stood for the point of obligatioii, i.e. under 
whatever degree of obligation King Henry might be to the duke of 
Brittany. 

II. when time was, i. e. when the opportunity offered. 

24. daugJiter of Maximilian. This was Margaret the daughter of 
Maximilian and of his first wife, Mary of Burgundy. She was at this 
time living at the court of France, and being educated as the future wife 
of Charles. She was sent back to her father before Charles' marriage 
with Anne of Brittany. 



NOTES, 249 

27. kingdom of Naples. The ground on which Charles VIII 
rested his claim to the Kingdom of Naples was that it had been be- 
queathed by the last count of Provence to Lewis XI King of France, 
and the conquest of Naples was to be a step towards the recovery 
of Constantinople and Jerusalem from the infidels. 

28. hither parts, the parts nearest to England. 

P, 46, line I. reception., recovery. A word due entirely to the 
Latinized character imparted to the f>nglish of this period by the nume- 
rous translations of the classics. 

5. most obliged. When Henry (as earl of Richmond) ^A•as attainted 
by Edward IV, he fled with his uncle Jasper, and intending to make 
for France was driven by stress of weather into Brittany, where he lived 
till the death of Edward IV. The duke of Brittany not only sheltered 
him, but promised his aid to the scheme for putting Henry on the 
throne of England. Charles VIII also supplied him with French 
auxiliaries, who fought for him on the field of Bosworth. Hence the 
expression in ihe text. 

26. Frejich, i. e. French King. This kind of ellipsis is not very 
common. But cf. the use oi Dane for Danish King, Hamlet, i. i. 15, 
" Liegemen to the Dane." 

P. 47, line 2. ^i7;r/t'^= gained as a prize, conquered. Cf. Shaks. 
Cor. IV. 7. 27, 

'"'■Lieut. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome? 
Auf. All places yield to him ere he sits down." 

6. a young King. Charles VIII ascended the throne of France in 
1483 at the age of fourteen, so that he was now about eighteen. The 
duke of Orleans was about ten years his senior. The young King was 
sickly and almost deformed and feeble in mental power, but yet had his 
imagination filled with visions of crusading exploits and renown. 

1 6. Christopher Urswick. Dr Christopher Urswick was sometime 
master of King's Hall in Cambridge. He was chaplain to the King's 
mother, and was employed by Henry as his own chaplain, great almoner 
and ambassador. 

18. churchman., an ecclesiastic. Cf. Shakespeare, Merry Wives, 1 1. 
3. 49, "Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen, we have 
some salt of our youth in us. " 

P. 48, line I. straightzoays, not now so usual a form as straightway, 
but the same double sets of compounds exist with way as with ward ; 
so that we have alway and always, and straightway and straightways 
side by side. See note on p. 10, 1. 20. 

6. m ^«<?= at one and the same time. L.at. simul. 

ir. make faith in //m = cause him to believe. Lat. regem Atiglice 
in opijiione perstituruvi. 

15. the treaty to be kept on foot. The dependence of this clause is 
not clear. The sentence is elliptical, and some expression like would be 
able must be understood after the word t7-eaty. 

21. perfeat in h'rs memory. Grafton (p. 872) says on this matter, 
**The Duke (because himselfe had bjsene long sicke, and thereby his 



250 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

memory and wyt was decayed and appaired) he appointed to heare the 
message with other of his counsellors, Lewis Duke of Orleaunce." 

P. 49, line 9. sort to his desire, fall out according to his wish. Lat. 
secundum exspectationem suam cedere. Cf. Shaks. 2d Hen. VI. i. 2. 107, 

"Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all." 

r o. took hold of them = seized the opportunity. 

1 4, /'rc'<?/;j' = treatment or handlmg of the matter. This is a very 
unusual sense of the English word. The Latin has tractatus. In the 
next clause the one means force, the othtr, persuasion. 

\ 7. to ride him = that he (Henry) might rule him (Charles). 

27. Na?itz (modern spelling Nantes), on the Loire, in the extreme 
south of the ducliy of Brittany. 

■29. dissemble hofne, i. e. dissemble in such a way as to produce the 
intended effect. Cf. Shaks. Tempest, v. i. 70, 

" I will pay thy graces 
Home both in word and deed." 

The Latin text has a curious variation here. It runs thus : *' qui 
simulationum artes in sinu patris optime perdidicerat," who had learnt 
the arts of dissiniulation under his father's tuition and fostering. 

P. 50, line I. Bernard D'Aubigny. Grafton (p. 873) calls him 
Barnarde, a Scot borne, called the Lorde Daubeny. This captain, 
whose name occurs frequently in the history of the wars between France 
and Italy at this period, was Bernard Stuart, Sieur d'Aubigny. He is 
mentioned in a letter on the negotiations of the English aml)assadors 
with Maximilian, Gairdner's Letters, &=c. Vol. I. p. 199. 

5. the Abbot of Abingdon. This was John Saint. 

6. Sir Richard Tunsfal. In Grafton there is no mention of this 
person as an ambassador, but instead of him we find Sir Richard Edge- 
combe, of whom see notes on p. 41. He is called a fatherly, wise, and 
grave personage. 

Urswick. Urswick was not of the first appointment to this em- 
bassy, but "John Lilye, borne in Luke [Lucca] the Bishop of Rome's 
Collector and Doctor of lawe, but he fell sick on the gowte so that 
he was not able to travayle in so long a jorney, and so weightie a 
business." So chaplain Urswick was sent in his stead. 

9. Lord IVoodvile. This was Edward Wydville, the brother of 
Elizabeth queen of Edward IV, at this time governor of the Isle of 
Wight. There is a notice of this expedition, Paston Letters (Gairdner), 
Vol. III. p. 344- 

17. to better a party = \.o take the side of, and give help to either 
party. The Latin has merely aiixiha submittere. 

•27. privilege of ambassadors, i.e. that they should be safe from all 
violence during their embassy. 

P. 51, line 4. 77iadefair weather, i. e. he replied with calmness and 
with a shew of friendship. Cf. Shakspeare, 2d Hen. VI. V. i. 30, 

" But I must make fair weather yet a while. 
Till Henrv be more -weak and I more strong ! " 



NOTES. 251 

15. rai'/= estimated, calculated, as in the phrase to cast accounts. 
Lat. Jia 7-ex cogitaveraL See Shaks. 2d Hen. IV. i. i. 166, 

"You cast the event of war, my noble lord, 
And sumni'd the account of chance, before you said, 
'Let us make head'." 

20. childless. Charles VIII died without issue, and his widow 
became the queen of his successor. 

2!. heir-apparent, i.e. the duke of Orleans. No party in France 
would be anxious to side with great zeal against the prince who was, in 
all probability, to be their future King. 

3 1 . affectionate unto the quarrel, well disposed towards, and anxious 
to take part with the duke of Brittany. Cf supra, p. 20, line 4, affec- 
tionate to the House of York. 

P. 52, line 4. capable of, able to comprehend and appreciate. Lat. 
capaces. See Shaks. Haml. ill. 4. 127, 

"His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones 
Would make them capable." 

10. blessed person, the character of a peacemaker, on whom a 
blessing is pronounced in the Sermon on the Mount (St Matth. v. 9). 

14. consent, agreement, sympathy. 

15. particularly interested. As being betrothed to Anne the daugh- 
ter of the duke of Brittany. 

25. principal, i. e. chief persons. Cf. Ps. Ixxviii. 52 (Prayer Book 
Version), "And smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the most principal 
and mightiest in the dwellings of Ham." 

P. 53, line 12. his partakers, those who had taken his part in the 
struggle for the crown, his partizans. The word occurs often in the 
text ; for references see Glossary. 

23. this present — \\\\% present time. Cf. the Absolution in the 
Book of Common Prayer, "which we do at this present." 

31. taheth for his tv/tv/z/.i^judgeth to be his enemies. Cf Shaks. 
Temp. V. I. 296, 

"What a thrice-double ass 
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god." 

P. 54, line 4. yielded to treat, consented to treat. Cf. Shakespeare, 
Richard III. ill. 7. 145, 

" Tonguetied ambition, not replying, yielded 
To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty." 

6. not upon, &c., not by reason of any confidence they have in 
their own powers of resistance, or through stubbornness, but because 
they distrust the true meaning. 

27. to eye, to have regard to. So Shaks. Temp. 11 1. i. 40, 

" Full many a lady 
I have eyed with best regard." 

30, at interest of danger. The idea is that future dangers are like 



252 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

the interest paid for a sum of money borrowed. The King says he will 
not have peace on such condition that he must pay a kind of interest in 
the shape of dangers to come for the immediate advantage of a pacifica- 
tion. 

P. 55, line 5. ha7id of protection — in allusion to the asylum which 
Henry found in Brittany during the reigns of Edward IV and 
Richard III. 

6. hand of help. In the form of auxiliaries to aid in the conquest 
of England. Of this Lingard says (iv. 125) Henry "had raised, with 
the permission of Charles, an army of three thousand adventurers, most 
of them Normans." 

10. enforced, in the sense in which we now use the simple verb 
fo7-ce. Cf. Shaksp. Two Gentlemen, iv. 3. 16, 

..." My father would enforce me marry 
Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhors." 

14. some corrupt persons aboitt him. King Richard III spared no 
expense to procure the most accurate information about the numbers and 
projects of Henry's partizans while the Earl of Richmond was resident 
in Brittany, and the useful aid of Landois the Breton minister was 
purchased with valuable presents. The duke Francis listened by 
degrees to the suggestions of his favourite, an armistice between 
England and Brittany prepared tlie w ay for more frequent intercourse, 
the King raised a body of a thousand arcliers for his new made friend 
the duke, and a plot was formed for tlie apprehension of Henry and 
his principal adherents (Rymer, xil. •226, 229). They would have, 
been caught in the toils of their wily adversary had they not been 
warned of their danger early in 1484, and found a new and safer asylum 
in the dominions of Charles VIII, where they employed more than a 
year in making preparations for their intended expedition. 

20. disinterest =io relieve from a claim. In the use of this word 
}5acon has sought a contrast to the word interest used in line 17. 
Interest (noun) means often a right or claim (cf. ist Hen. IV. ill. 2. 98, 
"He hath more worthy interest to the state than thou the shadow of 
succession") ; thus dis-interest comes to signify to do away with a claim. 
So Henry means to say that his regard for his own subjects outweighs 
(and so removes) any obligations of gratitude to Brittany or France. 
A like compound is found in dis-quantity. Shakespeare, Lear, I. 4. 270, 
" A little to disquantity your train." 

25. it is much <7^ = it very much depends upon. The consequences 
to England would vary according to the intentions of the King of 
France. If he meant only to reduce his rebels and not to annex 
Brittany, then the war was nothing to England ; but if he aimed at 
permanent conquest, then English interests were most seriously involved 
by the nearer proximity to this country of the French power, and by 
the large increase of seaboard which the French King would thus 
acquire. 

26, range, i.e. reduce, bring to order. The Latin has in ordinem 
redigere. 



NOTES. 253 

30. follow all one, result as a natural consequence. Lat. sponte 
yeci'itnruni. We should say wow, follow all the same. Cf. Bacon, Adv. 
of Learning (Clarendon Press), p. 158, 1. i : "The same action of the 
mind which inventeth, judgeth ; all one as in the sense." 

33. import, to be of consequence to. The verb is more frequently 
followed by a preposition, to or unto, but cf. Bacon Adv. p. 163, 1. 24 : 
"The caution of them [i.e. of fallacies] doth extremely import the true 
conduct of human judgment." 

P. 56, line 2. stretcheth his boughs. An imitation of the language 
of Ps. Ixxx. ir. 

7. Bjirgiindy. This duchy had of course been an ally of England, 
as the duke Charles the Bold had for his second wife Margaret, the sister 
of Edward IV, who wrought so much trouble for Hemy in this reign. 
But when duke Charles was slain at the battle of Nancy in January, 
1477, Louis XI sent forces to seize Burgundy and the Franche-Comte, 
and others to occupy Picardy and Artois, and by the beginning of April 
in that year Louis was recognized as sovereign of Burgundy. This is 
what is meant by Burgundy being already cast partly into the greatness 
of France. Then by the marriage of Mary, the daughter of Charles the 
Bold, to Maximilian, King of the Romans and Archduke of Austria, 
the districts which formed her dower wei^e cast into the greatness of 
Austria. 

20. universal, one which touches everybody, and is of general con- 
cern. This Bacon exemplifies by the instances which he gi\es a few 
lines below. 

23. Italy. The states which maintained the balance of power in 
Italy at this period were Milan (where the Sforza had established them- 
selves) ; Venice, which possessed half of Lombardy ; Florence, governed 
by the Medici ; the States of the Church, and the Kingdom of Naj^lcs 
and Sicily. 

P. 57, line 24. as he greatly desired, otherwise than, as he greatly 
desired to do, except wh^n he was obliged to use it for the administra- 
tion of justice. For otherzvise than the Lat. htis prceteiujnam. 

29. thorns in their sides. An allusion to the threatening of Numb, 
xxxiii. 35. 

30. therefore. This word is here used in the sense of propterea — 
on account of that, rather than in the more usual sense of igitur— 
therefore, so. The old English word forthi was really an ablative case 
thi, from the pronoun sc, seo, thcBt (a like form to which is still preserved 
in tt//y/ = qua re), and preceded by the governing preposition /^r. Per- 
Iiaps the distinction might be preserved in English by writing the word 
in such instances as that in the text, in the form therefor. 

P. 58, line I. the viarshaVs sword. The Lat. \\z.s gladius mar- 
^/<7/u = the sword drawn in warfare. 

6. liveries, tokens. Lat. vestinm distinctiones, tesserae. The distinc- 
tive dresses and badges were used as party symbols, and the wearing 
thereof tended grcaUy to keep alive the quarrels between different 
clans and followings in this age. To put them down in Ireland was one 
aim of Poynings' Law, which will hereafter be noticed. 



254 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 

13. wisdoms : not of very common occurrence in the plural, but it 
is again found on the next page, 1. 14. 

10. bastard and barren etnployrnent of moneys to usury. For a 
long time language like that in the text was employed concerning loans 
of money on contract to receive not only the principal sum again, but 
also an increase by way of compensation for the use. The objectors to 
such employment of money rested their objection on the prohibition 
contained in the law of Moses, and also on the doctrine of Aristotle, 
that money is naturally barren, and to make it breed money is prepos- 
terous, and a perversion of the end of its institution, which was only to 
serve the purpose of exchange and not of increase. In the Merchant of 
Venice Shylock describes such objections as being made by Antonio to 
his calling of money-lender. The modern study of political economy 
has taught us that the rate of interest may best be left to regulate itself 
by the demand for money and the nature of the circumstances under 
which it is borrowed. 

■23. royal trading. The Latin text calls this merely nobile cotn- 
mcrciwn. 

26. avoided, got rid of, extirpated. Cf. Shaksp. Merry Wives, ill. 
5. 152, "What I am I cannot avoid." 

30. employed upon the commodities of the land. Notice has already 
been taken of this maxim of the national economy in early times, which 
was enforced by statute to prevent the withdrawal of coin from the 
realm in exchange for foreign merchandise. See note on p. 18, 1. i. 
The lyat. text says the money received is to be employed ad merces 
nativas nostras coetnendas. 

P. 59, line 4. aids. These, which are also called subsidies (see 
line 29) and supplies, constitute the extraordinary, as distinguished from 
the ordinary revenue of the Crown. They are granted by Parliament, 
and the mode in which they shall be raised is settled by what is now 
called a committee of ways and means. 

5. good husband. Lat. 7iostis regem frugi esse, i. c. an economical 
and thrifty monarch. Cf. Shaks. Taming of Shrew, v. i. 71, "While 
I play the good husband at home my son and servant spend all at the 
university." 

1 1, not Jit to find the King. An idiomatic way of saying, not times 
wherein the King should be found. 

27. roundly, spiritedly and without ceremony. Cf. Tetter to the 
Mayor of Coventry in Cooper's Lady Margaret (Mayor), p. 230, " Wher- 
for we wol [will] and in the Kinges name commaunde you to call befor 
you the said parties and roundely to examyn them." 

P. 60, line 8. limited, bidden, commanded. The Latin has impe- 
rare. Cf. Shaks. Macbeth, ii. 3. 56, "Tis my limited service." 

13. greiv to manifest dec li nation = c\ez.x\y began to decline. 

14. St Alban (modern orthography St Aubin), a town to the west 
of Rennes in Brittany. The battle was fought July 27, 1488. 

15. duke of Orleans. Grafton says (p. 876) of the result of this 
battle to the duke, "The duke of Orliaunce was taken prisoner, which ^ 
duke (although he were next heyre apparaunt to the Crowne of Fraunce) 



NOTES. 255 

should have lost his head, if Ladie Jane his wife which was sister to the 
French King, had not obteyned perdon and remission of his trespasse 
and offence. Howbeit he was long after kept prisoner in the great 
tower at Bourges in Berry." This Lady Jane was Jeanne daughter of 
Lewis XI, and was the first wife of the duke of Orleans, from whom he 
procured a divorce when he ascended the throne as Lewis XII; the 
second wife of this prince was Anne duchess of Brittany, widow of 
Charles VIII, and his third, Mary daughter of Henry VII of England. 

20. James Galeot. Grafton calls him "Lord James Galeas," and 
adds that he was "borne in Naples." He was a captain of great fame 
in the fifteenth century. He was attached to the House of Anjou, 
and particularly to John duke of Calabria. He next served in the wars 
of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and lastly under Charles VIII of 
France. He fell as related in the text in the batile of St Aubin, and is 
buried at Angers. See Phil, de Commines, lib. iv. c. 13. 

24. went. ..for lost. The Latin has perditiim ifi, in which sense the 
text must evidently be understood. Brittany was on the point to be lost. 

33. _/i7j/ = close, near. 

P. 61, line 9. Francis duke of Britain deceased. His death took 
place Sept. 9, 1488. His elder daughter Anne, to whom his estates 
devolved, as the deceased duke had no son, was at this time in her 
thirteenth year. Charles VIII immediately claimed the guardianship 
of the young duchess, and required that she should not assume her title 
till the question of succession had been judicially settled between her 
and the crown. This demand was rejected, and an invasion of Brittany 
by a French army was the consequence. On the steps by which Brittany 
became united to the French crown, see pp. 77 seqq. and notes there. 

II. r^//r<f= withdrawal. C. Shakespeare, K. John, v. 5, 4, 

"When English measure backward their own ground 
In faint retire. " 
22. after some time. The marriage of Charles VIII with Anne of 
Brittany did not take place till Dec. 6, 1491. 

27. took «^/ = did not succeed. The Lat. has male cesserunt, Ci. 
Shakespeare, Hen. VHI. iii. 2. 218, 

"I know 
A way, if it take right, in spite of fortune 
"Will bring me off again." 

33. star-chamber. This court, originally composed of all the mem- 
bers of the King's ordinary council, had in old times jurisdiction in both 
civil and criminal causes. Its name is most probably derived from the 
Hebrew word she tar, a bond. In the early Norman times the bonds and 
business documents of Jews, whom the Conqueror found it convenient 
to protect, were deposited for safety in a room at Westminster, hence 
called shetar-chambcr, and then star-chamber. (See Hist. MSS. Com- 
mission, Fourth Report, p. 182. Among things relating to the estates 
of the Jews are mentioned "Eleven Hebrew stars,'" "Ninety-three 
pieces of parchment being Hebrew stars." See also p. 458 for a star 



256 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

preserved among the MS. treasures of Magd. Coll. Oxford.) The name 
was continued after the place had been devoted to other uses. By the 
time of Edward III the jurisdiction of this court had become so oppres- 
sive that various statutes were made to restrain it, as was necessary in a 
court where there was no juiy, and the judicial members whereof were 
the sole judges alike of Imv^ oi fact, and oi penalty. The regulations 
introduced by this act of Henry VII were virtually the erection of a new 
court of star-chamber on the ruins of the old. This court consisted of 
the chancellor, the lord treasurer, the lord privy seal, together with a 
spiritual lord and a temporal lord, and the two chief justices, or in their 
absence two other justices. The nature of their jurisdiction is men- 
tioned in the text below, on which see the notes. The jurisdiction of 
the Star-Chamber was greatly extended in the reign of Henry VIII, 
and its exercise of criminal jurisdiction rendered it a most odious insti- 
tution under the succeeding monarchs. It was abolished by the Long 
Parliament in 164 1. 

P. 62, line I. common hnvs. That is, those laws of which the 
original institution and authority are not set down in writing, though 
the decisions which have sprung out of them are contained in the 
records of the courts of justice. Such law receives its binding power 
from immemorial usage, and from its universal reception. It thus 
differs from statute law, which is the creation of acts of parliament. 

1. act 0/ parliament. The new Court of Star-Chamber had its 
origin from parliament, and so depended on statute, not on common law. 

4. besides, he.re = other t/ian, with the exception of. Bacon means 
that over all the courts of ordinary justice there had always been reserved 
to the King's Council a high and preeminent ]iower, but such power 
had not been given them over the high court of parliament. 

6. King's Bench (called in the reign of a Queen, Queen's Bench) 
is the supreme court of common law in the kingdom. Blackstone says 
of it, "It keeps all inferior jurisdictions within the bounds of their 
authority : it superintends all the civil corporations in the kingdom : it 
commands magistrates and others to do what their duty requires in 
every case where there is no other specific remedy. It protects the 
liberty of the subject, by speedy and summary interposition." It takes 
cognizance of criminal causes and civil likewise wherever they savour of 
a criminal nature, as for instance, trespass forcibly committed, or actions 
wherein any fraud is alleged. 

Common-place. This is the other branch into which the aula 
regia of old times was divided. It is now frequently called Common 
Bench, as the former is called King's Bench, but its most usual name is 
Court of Common Pleas. It takes cognizance of all civil actions which 
depend between subject and subject. These are called cofnmon pleas, 
as distinguished from pleas of the crown, which comprehend all crimes 
and misdemeanors wherein the sovereign is the plaintiff. 

7. Exchequer. This court, which was reduced almost to its pre- 



NOTES, 257 

sent order in the reign of Edward T, deals with all matters connected 
with the revenue of the crown, and recovers all the sovereign's debts 
and duties. One branch is called the receipt, the other the court 
or judicial section of the business of the ej^chequer. 

8. Chancery. The High Court of Chancery is presided over by 
the Lord Chancellor, who is the highest legal authority in the realm, 
and his court is a court of equity as distinguished from law. He miti- 
gates the severity or supplies the defects of the judgments pronounced 
in the courts of law on weighing the circumstances of the case, or, 
as Bacon says in the text, "by the conscience of a good man." Among 
the Romans a like power was given to one of their magistrates called 
Prator, and \.\\q Jus prcetoHittn, or the decisions given by this magistrate, 
were distinct from the standing laws of the nation. This is the distinc- 
tion to which Bacon alludes. 

II. Kinifs Ccruucil. Bacon is here speaking of the time anterior 
to Henry VH, who remodelled the Star-Chamber and appointed special 
persons as judges there. 

1 7. Censorian. Among the Romans an officer called Censor was 
appointed every five years, and his office was considered the highest 
dignity in the Republic. Among other functions the Censors exercised 
a moral jurisdiction and superintendence which extended itself in time 
over the whole public and private life of the citizens. We have in- 
stances where the Censors punished people for not marrying, for break- 
ing a promise of marriage, for divorce, for bad conduct during marriage, 
for improper education of children, for extravagance, and for other 
irregularities of private life. They also punished magistrates for bribery 
or neglect of duty, and persons who had committed jierjury, or were 
neglectful of their civil or military duties. Bacon compares the juris- 
diction of the Star-Chamber to the court of the Roman Censor. 

19. consisteth of four kinds of persons, i. e. by the regulations of 
Henry VH. The first kind was the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Trea- 
surer and the Lord Privy Seal as judges ; then (2) one Bisliop; (3) one 
Temporal Lord ; and (4) the two Chief Justices, or, in their absence, 
two other justices. 

21. forces, \. e. the unlawful use of force, as it is ex[)lained below, 
the combination of multitudes for unlawful purposes and the patronage 
bestowed by great men and men of influence on such combinations. 
All the laws which relate to the keeping of a large number of retainers 
have in view the suppression of illegal outbreaks and faction fights. 
The Lat. explains this by suppressio turbarum illicitarurn. 

22. stellionate, any cozening or counterfeiting of merchandise, any 
unjust or deceitful gaining, a malicious or fraudulent bereaving another 
of his money, wares, due provision or bargain (see Cotgrave's Diet. s. v.). 

inchoations, i. e. the prompting, aiding, and abetting, and being 
what is called an accessory before the fact. 

P. 63, line 2. Lord Chancellor, i. e. the Archbishop Morton ap- 
pointed Lord Chancellor in i486. 

7. in check-roll, i.e. those only who were actually enrolled in the 
king's household. The Lat. explains by famulitium conscriptum. 

B. H. 17 



25^ 



HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 



II, /;/ atty case of felony, i.e. in any case under the degree of 
treason, wherein the will is taken for the deed. Lat. alias qu-am in 
cri7ninibus laesae majestatis. 

15. is indifferent, i.e. applies equally, 

31. and was, i.e. and (which) was. Cf. note on p. 8, 1. 28. 

P. 64, line I. expect, wait till the lapse of. It was arranged by this 
act that the murderer should, without waiting, be arraigned at the king's 
suit, while the crime was fresh, but even if the accused were acquitted 
on such trial he should not be set at liberty till the year and the day 
were expired wherein the wife or heir of the murdered man was allowed 
the right of appeal to the law. See Statutes at Large, 3 Hen. VII. c. i. 

7. flagrante crimine, while the crime is fresh. 

13. privilege of clergy, was the exemptions of the persons of clergy- 
men from criminal proceedings before a secular judge. At first it 
applied only to a few cases but was gradually extended, till it was 
interpreted to apply to all cases, and to comprehend under iis protec- 
tion every little subordinate officer of the church, and many that were 
totally laymen. The brand appointed was to be M if the person hfxd 
been convicted of murder, and T for any other crime. See 4 Hen. VII. 
c. 13. (This is 1489 — 90, and not in the same session as the law about 
the repression of murders and manslaughters.) See additional Notes. 

17. was after branded by Ferkin''s proclamation. See p. 142, 1. 23. 
2-2. U7ilawful retaiiier. In case they were retained by liveries as 

servants of others, and so constituted themselves partizans of their supe- 
riors in routs and unlawful assemblies. The Lat. explains si famulitiis 
nobilium aut alioriwi, nisi domestici essent, se aggregareni. 

29. against usury. The act 3 Hen. VII. c. 6, says, all unlawful 
chevisance and usury shall be extirpate. All brokers of such bargains 
shall be set on the pillory, put to open shame, be half-a-year imprisoned, 
and pay twenty pounds. 

30. chievances. The word is the noun akin to the latter part of the 
verb achieve (Fr. achever — io bring to a head), and means a bargain or 
purchase. The more common form of the word is chevisance. See 
previous note. 

32. procedures, i.e. money produced by the sale. The act on this 
subject was a confirmation of that of 17 Edw. IV. c. i. 

P. 65, line 6. was inned, i.e. gathered in as a harvest, messis coacta 
est. For the use of this verb cf. Shakesp. All's Well, i. 3. 48, "To in 
the crop ". Marshes were said to be ' inned ' when reclaimed. 

14. memory of King Richard, see note on p. 20, 1. 5. 

18. bare principal stroke, were most influential. 

20. Earl of Northumberland. This was Henry Percy, fourth earl. 
He was one of those who deserted from the side of Richard III. at 
Bosworth field. 

31. were concluded, i.e. were included. The votes of the multi- 
tude were represented by the votes of Parliament. 

P. 66, 1. 2. which needed not- for which there was no necessity. 

6. himself i.e. the Earl of Northumberland. 

7. routed, not common as a verb = assemble in a rout or rabble. 



NOTES. 259 

10. Sir "John Egremond. He had had an annuity of forty marks 
sterling granted him (3 May, 1486) out of the forfeited lands of Francis 
Lord Lovel. Mat. for Hist, of Hen. VII. Vol. i. p. 4^21. 

1 1, borne an ill talent, Lat. infensus erat, had borne a grudge at. 

13. boiitefen, Fr. firebrand. 

14. popular. Mr Spedding alters this word into populace, and 
says, "The Ed. of 1622 has popular. In the MS. (which is pre- 
served in the British Museum) the word seems to have been originally 
popular e, but the r has apparently been corrected into f." 

19. Earl of Surrey, see note on p. 16, 1. 33. 

30. paramount, preeminent. Lat. transcendens. 

P. 67, line 4. He marched towards them. Mr Spedding observes 
in his notes that Henry "departed from Hereford towards the north 
(Lei. IV. p. 246) on the 22nd of May, about two months after the forces 
had sailed for Brittany ". We are to remember, therefore, that the war 
in Brittany was going on at the same time as this rebellion. Bacon 
thought that the forces had returned to England two or three months 
before, and was not aware that Henry had any other important business 
on his hands at this time. On this see Introduction. 

9. Sir Richard Tunstal. He had previously proved himself a 
faithful servant to King Henry, for which he is granted, on 18 June, 
i486, an annuity of ;i^ioo sterling out of the customs and subsidies in 
the port of Hull. He was also appointed (with others) to admit into 
the King's grace the rebels about P'urness Fells and Cartmell after 
Simnel's overthrow, ^ee Mat. for Hist of Hoi. VII. (i. 541). 

13. ally of we should now say ally in. For this use of the prepo- 
sition of=in, cf. Shakespeare, All's Well, v. 3. 1, "We lost a jewel 
of her ". 

James the Third. The date here must not be closely pressed, when 
Bacon says "about the same time". James HI. was killed as described 
in the text, on the ir June, 1488, nearly seven weeks before the battle 
of St Aubin, while Henry was endeavouring to mediate between the 
king of France and the duke of Brittany. So that there was nearly a 
year between the death of the Scotch king and the events which led to 
tJie death of the duke of Northumberland. Mr Spedding traces the 
error back to Polydore Vergil. See his note. 

18. James his son, afterwards James IV, who married Margaret, 
elder daughter of King Henry VII. 

19. partly by force, &c. The meaning of this very involved sen- 
tence is, that the rebels got prince James into their power, partly by 
force, and partly by threats that they would give over the kingdom to 
the English monarch, and then used the prince as a shadow for their 
rebellion, and conducted it in his name as though he were their leader. 

P. 68, line 3. taking no place, i.e. not being successful. The Lat. 
explains tractatu pads abrupto, the treating for peace being broken off. 

4. Strivelin, i.e. the modem Stirling. The mill where James III 
was kilkd was the mill of Beaton. 

II. Adriati de Castello. Grafton calls him " a man of Heturia, 
borne in the towne of Cornete, called in the old time Newcastell." He 

17 2 



26o HISTORY OF KING HENRY VH. 

first was made a prebendary of St Paul's; he became Bishop of Here- 
ford in 150-2, and of Bath and Wells in 1504. He was deposed by 
Pope Leo, for his conspiracy in 15 18, and Wolsey succeeded him. It 
was for him that the palace, now known as Giraud Torlonia, was built. 
He gave it to King Henry VHI, and it afterwards became the residence 
of the English ambassadors to Rome. Adrian lived at Venice till the 
death of Leo X, and is supposed to have been murdered on his way to 
the election of a successor. See further, Gairdner^s Richd. HI. and 
Hen. VH. (Chron. and Mem.), 11. 121. 

29. Alphonso Petnuci, cardinal of St Theodore, and son of the lord 
of Siena. He had been very influential in securing the election of Leo 
X as successor to Julius IL 

30. Pope Leo^ i.e. Leo X. He was John de Medici, and reigned 
from 15 13 to 1522. 

P. 69, line 10. Adrian the sixth, Pope 1522 — 1523. 

13. fifth. The fifth year of Henry VH extended from 22 August, 
1489, to 21 August, 1 490. These things must therefore mean the favour 
and first preferment of Adrian. 

end of the fowth year, meaning the session of October 1489. 

15. the former Parliament, i.e. the session of January, I488 — 9. 
Bacon supposed this parliament to have been called in June or July, 
1488, and refers to it the acts passed by the Parliament of Nov. 1487. 
Cf. Spedding, Bacon, Henry VH. (vi. 92), and the previous note on 
p. 64, 1. 13. 

25. Edward the first. From the wisdom of his legislation often 
spoken of as the English Justinian. His laws were directed to the 
restraint of the clergy in their acquisition of lands for the church, which 
he did by the statute of mortmain ; he enacted the statute of Winches- 
ter, which was for regulating the militia, and for the protection of the 
person and property of the subjects from robbery; he provided for the 
creation of entail, appointed justices of peace, prohibited the subdivi- 
sion of manors, granted a statute de tallagio non concedendo, by which 
the King was prevented from imposing taxes or tolls without consent of 
parliament. These and some similar statutes made his name justly 
famous as a legal reformer. 

30. heroical times : alluding to such legislators as Solon in Athens, 
and Lycurgus in Sparta, and Minos in Crete. 

P. 70, 1. 3. fines. A translation of the Latin text written to make 
the history of Henry VII accessible to foreigners, will make the 
meaning of this sentence more intelligible to the reader who is not 
learned in the law. " It was ordained that fines, as they are called 
(which is a certain solemn legal process), should be in reality final, and 
should extinguish not only all rights of parties concerned but of all 
others, .so that after fines of this nature had been levied and solemnly 
proclaimed, the subject should have a space of five years after his title 
accrued, wherein to recover his right or at least to make his claim, and 
if that time lapsed, he should be excluded from his right for ever." 
Thus a fine (which is described by Hallam as a fictitious process of law, 
of the same nature as what is called a common recovery) when levied 



NOTES. 261 

with proclamations in a public court of justice, shall after five years 
(except in particular cases, as of minors, &c., mentioned below) be a 
bar to all claims upon land. See additional Notes. 

The index Vocabiilorum to Bacon describes a Fine as "a legal 
instrument whereby inheritances are transferred, and which is of force to 
extinguish the claims of all persons who do not make them within the 
prescribed period." 

ro. An ancient statute of the realm, i.e. the statute de finibus of 17 
Edward I. c. I. 

13. Statute of non-claim. This statute, which was abolished by 
the statute of fines of He.nry VII, had been passed 34 Edward III. 
c. 16. The words of Henry's enactment speak of Edward Ill's statute 
as " the universal trouble of the King's subjects." 

26. manured, i. e. worked, tilled. The word is a shortened form 
of manxuvred, and in Bacon's time had not come to be used in the 
limited signification in which it is now employed. 

-28. rid. This verb, in the sense which it bears here of to dis- 
patch, to bring to an end, complete, is much more frequently used of 
persons and states than of things. But cf. Shaksp. Hen. VI. pt. 3, 
V. 3. 20, 

*' We having now the best at Barnet field 

Will thither straight, for willingness rids way " ; 

i.e. easily completes the work of a journey. 

30. This bred a decay. Sir Thomas More [Utopia, pt. i. p. 33. 
Pitt Press Series) laments over the decay caused by turning arable lands 
into pasture, and so bringing them all into the owner's sole use. " That 
one covetous and unsatiable cormorant and very plague of his native 
country may compass about and enclose many thousand acres of ground 
together within one pale or hedge, the husbandmen be thrust out of 
their own... by hook or crook they must needs depart away, poor 
wretched souls, men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless cliildren, 
widows, woful mothers with their young babes, and their whole house- 
hold small in substance and much in number, as husbandry requireth 
many hands." The act alluded to in the text is 4 Hen. VII. c. 19. 

P. 71, line 4. irnprovement of the patrimony, &c. : i.e. by means of 
a more productive cultivation. (Spedding.) 

6. nor tillage they rooidd not. Double negatives are very common in 
early English. Cf. Ascham's Scholemaster (Prof. Mayor's Edition), p. 37 : 
" A^(? Sonne, were he never so old cf yeares, never so great of birth, 
though he were a kynges sonne, might not mary." 

8. depopulating enclosures, &c. , i. e. such kinds of enclosures and 
pasturage as manifestly induced depopulation. (Spedding.) 

10. by consequence, i.e. as the practical result. 

11. were used with, i.e. had annexed to them. (Spedding.) 

16. his successor's time. The act alluded to was passed in the 6th 
year of Henry VIII, "Against decaying of husbandry, &c." 

r 7. upon forfeiture, i. e. if any one offended against this statute he 
was not to be proceeded against by a civil action, but the half profits of 



262 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

his lands were to be forfeited till houses and lands were restored as the 
act directs. 

25. on going. This is the earlier form, for which we now use a 
going. Thus alive = on live, and afoot = on foot. 

■26. mannerhood. The Latin has no expression for this word. It 
seems to savour of the meaning contained in the motto of William of 
Wykeham, "Manners maketh man," and to signify vianly cha?-arter. 
I have never met with the word rnannerhood elsewhere. 

P. 72, line 1. howsoez'er so7neftiv, Sec, i.e. ahhough some few men 
have differed in opinion on the matter, which admits of distinctions 
between one time or place and another. 

16. OJid no middle people, i.e. and there is no middle people. 

25. Hyd}-as teeth. Alluding to the fable of Cadmus. The story 
is told (among other places) in Ovid, Met. ill, 15 seqq. 

32. English bottoms, i. e. Englisli vessels. The act was passed in 
February, 1489 — 90, and is cited as 4 Hen. VII. c. 10. Under English 
the act includes vessels belonging to England, Ireland, Wales, Calais, 
or Berwick-upon-Tweed. The design of the King was to employ as 
m.any of his subjects as he could in a seafaring life. 

P. 73, line 1. incite. The Lat. text has invitant, invite. 

6. justices of peace. The act is 4 Hen. VII. c. 12. 

14. to the le/t hand, in the wrong direction, i.e. he grew culpably 
greedy of forfeitures. 

17. infonnotions by collusion, i.e. wherein the prosecutor is in col- 
lusion with the defendant, and has arranged not to prosecute in any 
earnest manner. Such collusive information had before this been 
allowed to be a bar to any real prosecution commenced afterwards. The 
act is 4 Hen. VII. c. 23. 

23. foreign coin current, i.e. such as had been allowed to pass 
current in England. Spanish doubloons were often allowed to be 
used as current coins in England. This was the statute 4 Hen. VII. 
c. 18. 

25. keep treasure within the realm. This had for some time been 
a maxim of English policy, and this act of Henry VII was but a 
revival for 20 years of the 17 Edward IV. c. i. 

i6. lay in least room, and so could be most easily smuggled out ot 
the country. 

27. drapery, i.e. the manufacture of cloth. This statute 4 Hen. 
VII. c. 8, provides that " Whosoever shall sell by retail a broad yard 
of the finest scarlet grained or other grained cloth of the finest making 
above i6s., or a broad yard of any other coloured cloth above lis., shall 
forfeit 40J. for every yard so sold. 

P. 74, line I. not to exceed a rate, i.e. the maximum price was fixed. 
Then the draper (i.e. the maker of cloth) might either make his cloth of 
as good quality as he could for the maximum price, or make it of an 
inferior quality and sell it cheaper, as he found best suited to his 
market. 

9. some correspondence to my person, i. e. Bacon being himself a 
lawyer takes interest in the legislative history on this account. The Lat 



NOTES. 263 

has vitae nostrac generi et instihito conjuncticm sit : connected with my 
way and employment m hfe. 

10. Mr Spedding observes that Fabyan says the King borrowed 
this sum in his third year, not in the fourth. Also according to an old 
chronicle (preserved in the British Museum, Cott. Vitell. A. xvi, and of 
which Mr Spedding has made good use) he borrowed another sum of 
£1000 in July, 1488. This would be just after the murder of James 
III. in Scotland, and was perhaps borrowed for employment in defend- 
ing the northern border. 

27. touching Britain. It has been already pointed out in the notes 
on p. 61, that Bacon had been led astray in his conception of Henry's 
policy towards Brittany, and that the English troops did not return as 
he there states, "five months after their landing," having in fact never 
gone, because the King until after the battle of St Aubin's (July 28, 
r488), hoped to succeed by negotiation and to have no need to send 
forces. Commissions to raise archers for the relief of Brittany were 
issued in December 1488, and musters were comm.anded to be taken in 
February, 1489. (See Gainlner, Paston Letters, III. 348.) 

P. 75, line 2. Gaunt, i.e. Ghent. 

12. Lord Ravenstein. Grafton (p. 888) calls him " Philip Mounsure 
Lord of Ravenstone. " Ravenstein was a title of the junior branch of 
the house of Cleves (from which in the next reign came one of the wives 
of Henry VIII). The present Philip was son of Adolph, Lord of 
Ravenstein, and grandson of Adolph IV, duke of Cleves. 

13. oath of abolition, i.e. the oath just mentioned that he would 
pardon their offences, &c. 

14. pretending the religion thereof, i.e. professing to be scrupulous 
about the observance of his oath. 

19. Lord Cordes. This was Philip Crevecoeur, seigneur d'Es- 
querdes. In the early part of his life he had served in the wars of 
Charles of Burgundy. After the death of Charles, Lewis XI made him 
governor of Picardy, and he was afterwards created a marslial of France 
in 1483. He died in 1494 near Lyons, in the expedition of Charles 
VIII for the conquest of Naples. 

P. 76, line 2. Lord Morley. This was Henry Lovell, second Lord 
Morley of that house. He left no issue on his death as described in 
the text. 

P. 77, line 19. stated, i.e. treated with all the ceremonial of state, 
as though she were Maximilian's wife. 

26. pretended consummation, the form of marriage by proxy. 

30. point of religion, the scruple about religion. 

P. 78, line I . the 7narriage halted upon both feet. The prospect of 
Charles Vlllth's marriage with Anne of Brittany was open to two 
objections. She had been married by proxy to the Archduke, and 
Charles was affianced to the daughter of Maximilian. 

24. Francis, Lord of Ltixe?nburg. Viscount of Martiga. 

Charles Marignian. In Rymer (XII. 432) this member of the embassy 
is called Wallerandus de Sams, dominus de Marigny. 

Robert Gagvi-^n, a learned French churchman, born at Calline in 



264 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

Artois, and at one time in charge of the Royal Library in Paris. He 
was high in the favour of both Charles VIII, and afterwards of Lewis 
XII. He died in 1502. A history of France is the best known of his 
literary works. The name appears in Renaissance history as Gaguinus. 

25. hons-hoinmes of the Trittity. This order, called also the "Order 
of the Redemption of Captives" (with which object it was first founded), 
was one of the numerous religious orders which were established in con- 
nexion with the cnisades. It was founded in 1 2 1 1 by John de Matha 
and Felix de Valois. 

P. 79, line 6 7-ight of seigniory. His right as feudal lord to bestow 
his ward in marriage as he might see best. See text, p. 84. 

7. depend upon, look up to and be observant of. 

16. Charles the Great, i.e. Charlemagne (768— 81 4). 

P. 81, line 3. olive-branch, than a laurel-branch, rather seeking for 
peace, symbolized by the former ; than conquest or victory, of which 
the laurel is the token. 

7. we7it ttpon it, were involved in it. 

22. The subjects of Burgundy : meaning (it would seem) the Flem- 
ings. It was through his marriage with the heiress of Burgundy that 
they became Maximilian's subjects ; and it was as subjects of Burgundy 
that the King of France claimed to be their lord in chief (Spedding). 

28. ////r/^a^f = gain or profit. Lat. emoluvientum. 

P. 82, line 13. kingdom of N'aples. The king at this time was 
Ferdinand I, the illegitimate son of Alfonso V of Aragon, and I of 
Naples of the line of Aragon. Ferdinand reigned from 1469 to 1494. 

15. by clear and tindoubted right. This right Charles claimed to 
inherit from his father, to whom the rights of the princes of the house of 
Anjou to the kingdom of Naples had been transmitted by the last direct 
heir, Charles, count of Maine and Provence. 

17. neither acquit, &c. , i.e. neither leave his honour untarnished, 
nor give a satisfactory account to his subjects of his neglect to urge his 
claim. 

23. Ottomans. The Turkish empire was so called after Othoman^ 
the famous king of the Turks, who died in 1328. Knolles says of him 
(p. 177), "Of a poor lordship he left a great kingdom, having subdued 
a great part of the lesser Asia, and is worthily accounted the first 
founder of the Turkes great kingdom and empire. Of him the Turkish 
kings and emperors ever since have been called the Othoman kings". 

29. thrice Christian King and the eldest sojt of the church. This 
was the title given by the Popes to the French monarchs, as Defender 
of the Faith was conferred on the kings of England. 

31. Henry the fourth. Of the purpose of Henry IV to war against 
the Mahometan power, Hall's Chronicle has, under the fourteenth year 
of that king's reign, ' ' He called a great council of the three estates of 
the realm, in the which he deliberately consulted and concluded, as 
well for the politic governance of his realm, as also for the war to be 
made against the infidels, and especially for the recovery of the Holy 
City of Jerusalem, in which Christian wars he intended to end his 
transitory life". 



NOTES. 265 

33. ancestor. The Latin merely says praedecessor^ which is the 
more correct. 

P. 83, line 6. Moors. Roderick, the last Gothic king in Spain, 
was overcome by the Moors in 714, and the Moorish power continued 
in Spain till 1492. 

-22. Gemes, brother unto Bajazet, This is Bajazet II, who suc- 
ceeded his father, Mahomet the Great, as emperor of the Turks in 1481. 
Gemes (who is called also Zemes, and Zizimus) was his younger brother. 
On the death of Mahomet, the nobles first placed Corcutus, a son of 
Bajazet, on the throne. But this youth of eighteen presently resigned in 
favour of his father. Gemes raised an army against his elder brother, 
and endeavoured to make himself sovereign in the Asiatic part of the 
Turkish empire. He was much favoured in his attempts by the friendly 
feeling of the people toward him. Bajazet advanced into Asia against 
him, and defeated him, after which Gemes fled to the Sultan of Egypt. 
After a short time he, with the aid of the King of Caramania, made 
a second revolution against his brother, but was again defeated and put 
to flight. He at first took refuge in Rhodes, and Bajazet endeavoured 
to persuade the grand master of the Knights of Malta, who then held 
sway there, to deliver him up, but was not successful. He then agreed 
to pay a yearly sum in consideration that the grand master should keep 
Gemes in safe custody, so that he should no more trouble the Turkish 
empire. Of the events alluded to in the text, Knolles, in his History of 
the Turks, says (pp. 446 — 452), "Many great princes desirous of Gemes 
laboured by their embassadours to have obtained him of the great 
master of the Rhodes, first Bajazet, his brother, fearing least he should 
at one time or other againe breake foorth upon him, or else set up by 
the Christian princes, trouble his estate, offered great summes of money 
to have had him delivered into his hands. And Charles, the French 
king, purposing the conquest of Naples (which he in few yeares after 
performed), and after that to have invaded Graecia, thought Gemes 
a most fit instrument for the furtherance of those his high designes, and 
was therefore wonderfull desirous to have had him, Matthias also, 
king of Hungarie (a fortunat warriour against the Turke), persuaded, 
that the having of him might be unto him a great furtherance in the 
course of his victories, sought by all the meanes he could to have 
obtained him. At which time also Innocentius, the eight of that name, 
Bishop of Rome, no lesse desirous than the rest, to have in his keeping 
so great a pledge of peace and warre (the bridle of the Turke's furie) 
together with the large pension he was sure to receive yearely from 
Bajazet for the safe custodie of him, so wrought the matter by Lyonell, 
bishop of Concordia, his cunning legat, that the great master fearing on 
the one side to bee constrained by the great power of Bajazet to graunt 
that he had so often refused, and now so earnestly sollicited on the 
other side by the bishop, caused Gemes to be delivered to him at Rome 
in the yeare 1488, for which doing, he was by the bishop honoured with 
the honour and title of a cardinall. So Gemes, to the great profit of 
the bishop (who received from Bajazet a yearely pension of 40000 
duckats), remained in safe custodie at Rome all the time of Innocentius, 



266 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

and also of Alexander the sixt, his successor, until that the French 
king, Charles the eight, passing through the heart of Italy with a strong 
armie against Alphonsus, king of Naples, in the yeare 1495, and making 
his way through the citie of Rome, so terrified the great bishop, who 
altogether favoured and furthered the title of Alphonsus, that he was 
glad to yield to such articles and conditions as pleased the king ; and 
amongst the rest to give in hostage unto the king his gracelesse Sonne, 
Caesar Borgia Valentinus, and also to deliver unto him Gemes his 
honourable prisoner. But Gemes, within three daies after he was 
delivered unto the French, dyed at Caieta, being before his deliverance 
poisoned (as it was thought) with a powder of wonderfull whitenesse 
and pleasant tast, whose power was not presently to kill, but by little 
and little dispersing the force thereof, did in short time bring most 
assured death : which pleasant poison, Alexander the bishop, skilfull in 
that practise, corrupted by Bajazet his gold, and envying so great a 
good unto the French, had caused to be cunningly mingled with the 
sugar wherewith Gemes used to temper the water which he commonly 
dranke. His dead bodie was not long after sent to Bajazet, by Musta- 
pha, his ambassadour, who to the great contentment of his master, had 
thus contrived his death with the bishop. Not long after, this dead 
bodie so farre brought, was by the appointment of Bajazet, honourably 
enterred amongst his auncestors at Prusa". 

24. Alcoran, the Mahomedan Sacred Scriptures, more usually called 
the Koran, al being the Arabic definite article. 

Averroes, an Arabian writer on medicine in the twelfth century. 

P. 84, line 4. run a fair course, i.e. deal openly and fairly. 

27. impatronize, i.e. make himself patron and master. The Lat. 
uses potior. 

28. litigious, which would involve him in disputes. His heir-pre- 
sumptive was the duke of Orleans, who had been the chief adviser of 
the late duke of Brittany in his latter days, and who was afterwards 
Lewis XH. 

P. 85, line 25. By the book. The Latin explains this by Litiirgia. 
This (says Mr Spedding) "must not be understood as referring to the 
French king's intention to marry the duchess himself, for that was not 
yet in question, but to the right which he claimed of disposing of her in 
marriage". 

29. io imprison their Prince first. See text, p. 75, 1. 5, seqq. 

32. sent to the subjects of Scotland. Alluding to the events whici 
preceded the death of James III of Scotland. See text, p. 67, 1. 26. 

P. 86, line 29. The King our master''s title to France. This claim 
was made as Henry VI had been crowned king of France. It was not 
till the parliamentary unioji of Ireland with England in r8oi, that the 
title "king of France" was omitted from the style of the English 
monarch. 

P. 87, line 17. Thomas, earl of Ormond. This was Thomas Butler, 
the seventh earl. 

20. Pope Alexander the sixth. Roderick Borgia, who succeeded 
pope Innocent VIII in 1492 and sat on the papal throne till 1503. 



NOTES. 267 

The moral degradation into wliich the papacy sank under this pope has 
no parallel either in its earlier or later history. For the expenses of 
the profligate court, of the wars of Caesar Borgia (a son of the pope), 
and the establishment of his other children, Alexander was continually 
in need of money, and no means were too shameful to be employed in 
raising it. An epigram of the time accuses him of selling all that 
was most holy, and giving as his excuse that he had first bought it 
before he sold. 

■27. Borgia's hark. In allusion to the family name of the pope, 
which was borne by his numerous children. 

33. found the English ambassadors at Calais. Mr Spedding points 
out that Bacon has here confused an embassy from pope Innocent with 
some later embassy. For Alexander VI did not become pope till 
II August, 1492. The events in our text precede the marriage of 
Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany (see text, next page), and that 
event occurred in the Dec. of 1491. There is a notice of a papal em- 
bassy from pope Innocent soon after mid-lent in 1490. 

P. 88, line 4. a good ominous na7ne., being the bishop of Concord. 

9. the prior. This is Robert Gagvien (see notes on p. 78). He is 
called the Prior of the Trinity (p. 79, 1. 12). 

16. Henry. Henry VIII, born 22nd June, 1491. 

18. fnarriage between Charles, &c. They were married at the castle 
of Langeais in Touraine, 6th Dec, 1491. 

P. 89, line 13. under his eloth of estate, the canopy over the royal 
throne. The Latin has merely solio suo. 

■20. another man's right, i. e. the duke of Brittany's. 

P. 90, line 4. a Frenefi king prisoner in England, i.e. King John 
of France, brought prisoner to England by the Black Prince in 1357. 

5. a King of England crowned in France, i. e. Henry VI, crowned 
in Paris in 1431 

14. Tramontanes, Transmontanes. To the pope the French king 
was Transmontane. In our own day (from a change in the point of 
view) the Italians are to us Transmontanes. 

19. of ourselves, we should say now by ourselves. Cf. Shaksp. 
1 pt. Hen. VI. I. I. 166 : 

*' Why should he then protect our sovereign, 
He being of age to govern of himself? " 

32. make his son knight. Apparently pointing his hearers to a 
way in which they might raise money, as this was one of the three 
occasions on which aids might be demanded from feudal tenants. 

P. 91, line 17. many years before, i.e. for many years before. 

31. Russignon (modern orthography Koussilloyi) was one of the 
provinces of France in the extreme south, bounded on the south by the 
Pyrenees. Its chief town was Perpignan. In 1462 Lewis XI acquired 
possession of this territory, and Cerdagne (a part of Spain adjoining 
Russignon), in pledge from John II of Aragon, father of Ferdinand, as 
security for a large sum of money advanced to that prince for the pur- 
pose of reducing his revolted subjects, the Catalans. ' See text, p. 10 1. 



268 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

P. 92, line 32. benevolence. This illegal exaction was abolished by 
Richard III in his first parliament (1483). See additional Notes. 

P. 93, line 7. and better, i.e. and more. This, the original sense 
of the word, which implies something additional or to boot, has almost 
faded out of classical English. It does not occur in Shakespeare. 

2 1 . Scotland. The declaration of war against Scotland, of which no 
mention is made in modern histories, is contained in the preamble of an 
Act (7 Hen. VII. c. 6), by which all Scots, not made denizens, were 
ordered out of the kingdom within forty days (Spedding), Infra, 1. 29. 

22. mort-pays, i.e. taking the King's pay for a larger number of 
soldiers than a captain had in service, or claiming for men dead {mortui) 
or discharged. The Act (7 Hen. VII. c. i) says, ''If any captain... 
hath not his whole number of men and soldiers, according as he shall 
be retained with the King, or give them not their full wages as he shall 
receive of the King... he shall for such default forfeit to the King all his 
goods and chattels and his body to prison." Cf. Gascoigne's Steel Glas. 
p. 65 (Arber"s Reprints), 

*' Behold (my lord) these souldiours can I spie 
Within my glasse, within my true Steele glasse. 
I see not one therein which seeks to heape 
A world of pence, by pinching of dead payes. 
And so beguiles the prince in time of nede, 
When muster day and foughten fielde are odde." 

27. Jin es for alienation. These were due to tlie crown as feudal 
lord, but to encourage men to alienate, and thus raise money for the 
wars, the King remitted these fines. 

30. standard of the exchequer, i.e. specimens of weights and mea- 
sures, according to the legal standard of the exchequer, that there might 
be uniformity of weight and measure in the land. 

P. 94, line 8. Gaunt, i. e. Ghent. I have left Bacon's orthography 
here, because the name is familiar in that form as having been the title 
of John, duke of Lancaster, son of Edward HI. 

17. avails, produce, value, profit. Cf. Shaks. All's Well, III. i. 22, 
"You know your places well 
When better fall, for your avails they fell." 

28. duke of Saxony. Albert, duke of Upper Saxony, a great friend 
of the King of the Romans, see Hall's Chronicle. 

P. 95, line 4. bearing them in ^a«</= making them believe. Cf. 
Tyndale's Exposition (Parker Soc), p. 28: ''Beware. ..of them that would 
bear thee in hand how that suffering should be satisfaction of thy sins." 

17. fro7n their frietids. The Latin explains this, adding, "from 
the French," who knew that some new dangers were threatening the 
people of Dam. 

24. to the Kini;, i. e. to the King of England. 

33. Sir Ediuard Poynings. One of Henry's most able officers, 
afterwards Lord Deputy of Ireland (1494), in which office he drew up 
the Statute of Drogheda, often called Poynings' Law. See text, p. 127. 

P. 96,line 10. brother of the Earl of Oxford" s, Sir Richard(?)de Vera. 

32. about this time. The ceremony in St Paul's took place, April 
6th, 1492. See Hall (6th year of Hen. VII). 

P. 97, line I. conquest of Granada. Hall (as his manner is) gives 



NOTES. 269 

an elaborate account of all that took place on the entry of Ferdinand 
and Isabella (whom he always calls Elizabeth). The religious punctos 
(i. e. observances) seem to have been very numerous, and Hall's account 
of the conduct of the Moors at the raising of the cross is worth quoting : 
"The sayde crosse was iii times devoutly elevate, and at every exalta- 
tion, the Moores, beyng within the cytie, roared, howled and cryed 
prosternyng them selfes grovelynge on the grounde making dolorous 
noyes and piteful outcryes. " 

9. greater tcnoer, called Alhambra (Hall). 

15. Saint James, the patron saint of Spain. 

21. a psalm. It was the Benedicttis, Luke i. 68 (Hall). 

P. 98, line I. mnv cardinal. Archbishop Morton was made a 
Cardmal in 1493, with the title of St Anastasia (Hook's Lives, v. 
462). 

ir. Kings. This word, applied to both King and Queen, may be 
compared with Shakespeare's use of Prince for both male and female. 
See King John, 11. i. 445, "These two princes if you marry them." 
The first occurrence of the word Kings thus used is p. 13. 33, then 
loi. 24. 

27. in procession. Using the Te Deum as a processional hymn. 

P. 99, line 14. Sir John Riseley. One of the early trusted servants 
of Henry VII. In a grant of offices made to him, 12 Sept. 1485, it is 
said to be made "in consideration of the true heart and service that our 
servant and true liegeman Sir John Riseley, knight, hath borne and 
done unto us in sundry wise herebefore, as well beyond the sea as 
at our late victorious field within this realm to his great charge labour 
and jeopardy and he faithfully intendetli to continue his Truth and 
service unto us during his life." 

18. Countebalt, described by Hall (6 Hen. VII) as "James Conti- 
bald, a man of great gravity." 

27. His mother in laio, i. e. Margaret duchess of Burgundy. 

P. 100, line I. So as the for?nal part, &c. So that as far as all the 
forms of an embassy were concerned they might seem to have a good 
reason for remaining. They had not received an answer, but an ample 
one was promised. 

13. Thomas earl of Arundel. In his first summons to parlia- 
ment (22 Edw. IV) he is named Thomas Arundal de Matravers. He 
married a daughter of Richard Wydville, Lord Rivers, and one 
of his daughters was wife of John, Earl of Lincoln, who fell at Stoke- 
field. 

14. George earl of Shrewsbury, son of John, 3rd Earl of Shrews- 
bury. His mother was a daughter of Humphrey, Earl of Stafford. 
This nobleman had fought for Henry at Stoke-field. 

Edtnond earl of Sitffolk, Edmund de la Pole, brother of the Earl 
of Lincoln. 

15. George earl of Kent. George Grey had succeeded his father 
Edmund in the Earldom in 4 Hen. VII. His mother was a daughter 
of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, killed in the subsidy-riot in 
Yorkshire (see p. 66). George, Earl of Kent, took an active part in 
the suppression of the Cornish rebellion. See Dugdale, i. 718. 



270 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

The earl of Essex. Henry Bourchier. He also took part in the 
suppression of the Cornish rebellion, Dugdale, ii. 1 30. 

16. Thomas earl of Orniond. This was Thomas Bullen, he was 
afterwards created (1495) an English peer as Baron Rochford of Roch- 
ford in Essex. 

P. loi, line 7. The hotter he was, &c. Cf. p. 77. 10 for an example 
of this heat. 

31. so potent a confederate, i. e. Ferdinand of Spain. 
P. 102, line 2. Bishop of Exeter. This was Fox. 

9. Sir John Savage. He had gone (says Hall) privily out of his 
pavilion with Sir John Riseley, and was suddenly intercepted and taken 
of the enemy, and he being inflamed with ire, although he were captain, 
of his high courage disdained to be taken of such villains, defended his 
life to the uttermost, and was manfully (I will not say wilfully) slain. 

15. a peace, known as the Peace of Estaples. It was concluded 
there Nov. 30, 1492. For the articles thereof, see Molinet (Buchon), 
IV. 328 seqq. The sums mentioned by Molinet are not in accordance 
with those given below in the text. 

20. ducat, here apparently used vaguely = crown. King Henry's 
letter, read in the Guildhall, Nov. 9, calls the sum "745,000 scutis, 
which amounteth in sterling money to £\'i.i,(t(i(i. 13^-. 40^." The sum was 
to be paid in consideration of the expenses incurred by the English 
King in the defence of Brittany, which Henry estimated at 620,000 
crowns, and to clear off the sum remaining due upon the pension 
granted to Edward IV by Lewis XI (at the peace of Picquigny), which 
was estimated at 125,000 crowns. Henry agreed now to accept a pay- 
ment of 25,000 francs every half-year till the whole should be cleared 
off. These half yearly payments continued to be made down to the 
year 1514, when further claims on the part of the English led to a new 
treaty with Lewis XII. Sec Rymer, .\iii. 428. 

in present (line 20) is a mistake. The large sum was to be paid 
by instalments. See Spedding, Vol. vi. p. 103 note. 

24. alteration of the hand, i. e. making another person rather than 
Maximilian responsible for this payment. This Henry counted to be 
worth as much as the whole sum. 

P. 103, line 6. toider their hands, i. e. in a written document 
signed by them. 

16. to plume, here = to strip off the feathers, a meaning very differ- 
ent from the usual sense of the verb. 

32, Alphonso, duke of Calabria, who in 1494, succeeded his father 
as King of Naples and Sicily by the title of Alphonso II. 

P. 105, line 12. Tur/c's commissioners for children of tribute. The 
Lat. version explains this as "those agents of the Turks who exact 
children as a tribute," i. e. demand from the subject races so many 
children annually as a tributary payment, and pick out the most pro- 
mising. 

31. to have made somrduhat to the matter, i.e. to have contributed 
to, or helped on, the proceeding. 

P. 106, line I. Gossip, godfather. The last syllable is common, in 
the Lowlands of Scotland, in the form sib = xe\a.ie6. to, akin. 



NOTES. 271 

12. yohn Osbeck. Mr Spedding has pointed out, as Sir Fred- 
erick Madden (whom he quotes) had done before, that Bacon has formed 
a wrong conception of the meaning of Speed's text on which his narra- 
tive is based. According to that King Edward was not the godfather of 
Perkin, but of a certain Jew, who at baptism took the name of Edward. 
Parkin was the son of John Osbeck as related in the text, but there is 
no evidence to shew tliat Osbeck was a Jew or was ever in London, but 
Perkin liis son appears to have been clerk, or apprentice or servant to 
Edward the converted Jew who lived in London, and in this way he 
came to be acquainted with the court and doings of Edward IV. See 
Sir Fred. Madden's article in the Archceologia, Vol. xxvii. p. 163. In 
reference to the variation of the name Osbeck into VVarbeck there is a 
curious form of the word in the provisions of the Irish Parliament of 
1498, where it is ordered that William Barry, commonly called Lord 
Barry of Munster, and John Water of Cork, merchant, having of late re- 
ceived divers letters from Parkyn IVosebek, are to be attainted of high 
treason. This form may explain the transition from one orthography 
and pronunciation to the other. For the easy interchange of r and s, 
cf. ure = use in the text, p. 181. 17. 

1 1 . Perkin. This teraiination kin is not only used as a diminutive 
in proper names, as ^F///7« = little Will, lVatkin = \\\.\\Q Walter, but in 
common nouns as firkin = a fourth part of a barrel, the word being a 
diminutive oi four ; so gherkin of which the first syllable is akin to 
gotird, a species of cucumber, and the diminutive ending is the same as 
in the previous examples. 

P. 107, line 6. I'he while. Lat. quo temporis spatio, i.e. in the 
meanwhile. Cf. Shakespeare, Com. Err. V. j. 174: "My master preaches 
patience to him, and the while his man with scissors nicks him like a 
fool." 

23. things that a very few could control = such as only one here and 
there could venture to dispute. Lat. pauci admodum arguere- possent. 

P. 108, line 9. In the first edition there is no stop at time. But the 
Latin text clearly shews that there ought to be a period here. It runs 
thus A qua cccli plaga cometa iste se primo ostendere deberet et quo te?npore. 
Constituit autem, is'c. 

30. The metaphor is continued from line 8 where Perkin was com- 
pared to a blazing star. 

P. 109, line 2. aftenvards, for an account of this confession see 
text p. 170, 1. 20. 

4. and bare him down, i.e. and asserted in spite of all that he could 
say. The phrase is carried a little farther in sense than is usual, but the 
idea is the same. It is usually employed to mean, to overturn, to over- 
whelm. Cf. Shaksp. M. of Ven. iv. i. 214, "Malice bears down truth." 
So that in the text it is implied that the Irishmen would hear nothing 
that he had to say, and silenced all his protestations. 

15. Earl of Desmond. This nobleman was one of the Fitzgeralds, 
a kinsman of the Earl of Kildare. The present Earl of Desmond was 
Maurice Fitzgerald. 

19. Stephen Prion. His grant for life of the office of Clerk of the 



272 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

Signet and Secretary for the French tongue to the King, with a salary 
of ;^40 a year, is dated 3rd Oct. 1485. 

-23. ;^^ = Charles VIII. I'he Latin leaves no doubt on the subject, 
but has belliini biter reges apei'te pitllidare ccepisset. War between the 
Kings had shewn signs of commencement. 

P. no, line 10. Lord Congresall. The Lord of Congressault. He 
was of a Scotch family of the name of Monipeny, see Pinkerton's Scot- 
land, ii. 438. 

1 1, though it be ill fuockitig with the Frejich, i. e. though they are 
not adepts at playing a part. Lat. licet apiid Gallos hidos facere in pro- 
elivi non sit. 

12. applied themselves to their King's bent, humoured their sove- 
reign's inclination, fashioned their behaviour according to his wish, 
seeing that a political end was to be served thereby. 

14. Sir George Nevile. A son of Lord Abergavenny. See Mem. 

for Hist, of Hen. VII. Vol. i. p. 432, where is a petition to the King 

from Sir George asking tliat power should be granted him to recover 

certain rents and duties due to him from tenants in Wales. He prays 

that this may be done by a letter under the King's Privy Seal. 

26. laboured. This use of the word is not common. It means to 
be hard pressed, much urged ; Lat. has intcrrpellatiis, i. e. importuned. 
P. Ill, line 3. even in that, i.e. even in the case of Lambert Simnell. 
5. pose, to question. The xvown poser is still used for the title of an 
examiner at some public schools, e.g. Eton. 

1 7. matter. For tnatter used thus of a person ; cf. Shakespeare 
Sonn. 87. 14, "In sleep a king, but waking no such matter^ 

20. "Wanting to himself Nor did he fail to play his part well. 
28. with oft telling a lie. Cf. for the sentiment, Shakesp. Temp. 
I. 2. 100. 

" Like one 
Who having unto Truth, by telling oft 
Made such a sinner of his memory 
To credit his own lie, he did believe 
He was indeed the Duke." 

P. H2, line r. halberdiers. The name is derived from the weapon 
with which they were armed, which was a kind of pole-axe. In Old 
German the word was spelt helmbarte; helf?i = -^o\Q and barte (connected 
with bari, beard) indicating the hanging form of the iron head. 

3. Dutch. The Latin says /yaz/t/r/^ Flemings. 

12. tcpo7t. The Latin in this and the following lines has propter = 
on account of. This meaning oi upon is not rare in Shakespeare. Cf. 
King John, ii. i. 597. "Kings break faith upon commodity." 

31. footings up and down, i. e. footprints going backward and for- 
ward and so leaving only a confused impression. 

P. 113. line r. Sir William Stanley. The first grant to Sir William 
Stanley as King's Chamberlain dates 24th Jan i486. 

2. Lo7-d Fitzwalter, i. e. Sir John Ratcliffe, who became Lord Fitz- 
walter by marrying the daughter and heiress of the last Lord of that 



NOTES, 273 

name of the house of Mandeville. He had been employed by Henry 
VII in connection with Sir Reginald Bray in exercising the office of 
chief justice of the forests beyond the Trent. He was beheaded for 
attempting to escape from prison in Calais. 

Sir Simon Mountfort, Made steward for life of the Lordship of 
Castle Bromwich, 26 Dec. 1485. 

Sir Thomas Thwaites. He had been made treasurer of Calais and 
the marches thereof, 4 March, i486. 

5. Sir Robert Clifford. He was the youngest son of Sir Thomas 
Clifford who was slain in the battle of St Albans. His first employment 
under Henry VII dates Mar. 15, i486, as chamberlain of the town and 
port of Berwick upon Tweed. The text explains his after history. 
Among the Privy Purse expenses of Hen. VII {Exce^-pta Historica, 
p. 100) is found an entry of ;[^5oo paid by Sir Reginald Bray to Sir 
Robert Clifford as a bribe for his services in betraying Warbeck and his 
adherents (see text, p. 116). 

6. William Barley. These two who negotiated the matter with 
Sir Robert are also highly paid. In the same place is a notice of the 
promise of pardon and high reward to Barley. 

1 1 . came to have a correspondence. Began to have a party which 
favoured it in either country, and who established inter-communica- 
tion. 

P. 114, line 13. Brackenbury. The account here given is drawn 
from Sir Thos. More's life of Richard III, (p. 68, ed. 1557) where men- 
tion is also made of this examination of Tirrel and Dighton. It is also 
narrated that Tirrel accepted the work of murdering the princes because 
"the man had an high heart and sore longed upward, not rising yet so 
fast as he had hoped, being hindered and kept under by the means of 
Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Sir William Catesby which longing for no 
more parteners of the princes favour and namely [i.e. especially] not for 
him whose pride they wist would bere no pere, kept him by secrete 
driftes out of all secrete trust." In the progress of the story in More, 
Miles Forrest is described as "a fellow fleshed in murder beforetime," 
and his fate is noticed thus, "Miles Forest at Sainct Martens pecemele 
rotted away." Dighton is said to have been Tirrel's horsekeeper, "a big 
brode square strong knave" and it is added "he indede yet walketh on 
alive in good possibilitie to be hanged ere he dye. But Sir James Tirrel 
dyed at Tower Hill beheaded for treason." 

P. 115, line 18. to advertise, i.e. to send him information, to keep 
him informed. They were not to publish abroad what they found, as 
the word now mostly signifies. The Lat. makes this clear by expressing 
the pronoun. 

29. board. The Latin explains this by allicere=to entice. 

P. 116, line 13. had intelligence with, i.e. entered into secret cor. 
respondence with these men, as the Latin explains, in order that 
through their means he might gain information of the plans of his 
adversaries. 

15. did use to have thejn cursed, i.e. although they were in his own 
employ, he had their names enrolled among those who were accursed as 

B. H. l3 



274 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

the King's foes, that thus their actions abroad might be less suspected of 
being undertaken at his instigation. 

29. might receive the more or the less, i. e. as the examinations and 
enquiries were not completed, some of the statements might receive 
additional confirmation, and others be weakened by further search. It 
would not therefore have been wise to put forth what had been learnt, 
in such a formal manner as a proclamation would have assumed. 

30. print, i. e. penetrate, sink into men's minds. 

32. Archduke Philip, i. e. Maximilian's son who had now become 
Archduke. His father had become emperor of Germany in 1493. 

P. 117, line I. Sir William Warham. Who was afterwards Arcli- 
bishop of Canterbury, from 1503 — 32. Although his embassy on this 
occasion did not lead to success yet he retained the King's favour and 
was frequently employed. (See Hook, Lives of the Archbishops, New 
series, i. 168.) He is mentioned as Master of the Rolls, p. 146. 

21. thought to be in the King's ozvn poxver, i.e. to be contrived by 
the King and so fashioned as to serve his own purposes, and therefore 
not to be accepted without question. 

P. 119, line 16. a patrimonial do7vry. This is the reading of the 
text of 1622, but the Latin has dotcm matrimonialem, which is what the 
sense requires, as the possessions of the Lady Margaret of Burgundy 
were those which she held in virtue of her marriage and under the 
will of her late husband. 

earned no part of sovereignty or command of forces, i.e. gave her 
no rights such as a sovereign possesses to command the forces of the 
country. 

19. hotvsoevef, &^c. i.e. although the Archduke pretended only to 
connive at the sheltering of Perkin. 

21. partly out of courage. The "Lsit. exp\3.ins: partim animum ex- 
plere cupiens, i. e. desiring to satisfy his own feelings. Cf line 29, "being 
sensible in point of honour." 

28. trade, i. e. between England and Flanders. The proclamation 
was directed to be published on iSth Sept. 1483. 

31. The first he in this sentence is of course Henry and the he in 
the next line refers to the pretender Warbeck. 

P. 120, line 7. done to his hand. By Henry's previous command to 
them to withdraw. 

17. William Daubeney. Mentioned [Mat. for Hist, of Hen. VII. 
Vol. I. p. 214) as formerly keeper of the jewels to the "pretensed" 
King Richard, Duke of Glocester. This may account for his being 
found among the adherents of Warbeck. 

The list of persons apprehended is considerably enlarged in the 
chronicles of Hall and Grafton who add to the names here given "cer- 
tayn priests and religious men as Sir William Richeforde, doctor of 
divinitee and Sir Thomas Poynes bothe freers of Sainct Dominikes 
order, Doctor William Sutton, and Robert Laybome and Sir Richard 
Lessey. 

23. he dealt with his keeper^ i. e. he made proposals to the keeper to 
allow him to escape. 



NOTES. 275 

28. William Worslev- This was the dean of St Paul's, he received 
his pardon on the 6th June, 1495. 

31. was not tojiched. Mr Spedding notices from Tytler's Hist, of 
Scotland (iv. 374) a raid made into the North of England by the Scotch, 
of which the only mention is found in the record of Justiciary, Nov. 
1493. Mr Tytler conjectures that this was a movement of the Scotch 
in concert with Flanders, Ireland and the Yorkists in England, but the 
Scotch were too hasty in crossing the border, for the treachery of Clif- 
ford had revealed the whole particulars to Henry, and the apprehension 
of the chief persons concerned (as stated above) taking place just when 
it did, broke the whole scheme, and rendered the cause of Perkin hope- 
less. But it is clear from the absence of all mention of this inroad in 
our histories that we are not yet in a position to judge of all the circum- 
stances under which King Henry acted, and we can well see why he 
might be willing to wait before he arrested Sir William Stanley. 

P. 121, line II. according to the ceremony, i.e. with the usual rites 
and ceremonies. See for an account of them Beatson's Political Index, 
Vol. III. pp. 408 — 4r5. There were twenty-four creations on this 
occasion, and the names are given in Beatson (iii. 421). The date of 
the installation was Sunday, May 19, 1495, at which time prince 
Henry was little more than four years old. 

13. Westminster. The MS. Chronicle (Cott. Vilel. A. xvi) says 
the king kept his Christmas at Greenwich. Stowe says, as Bacon, at 
Westminster. 

20. presently attached, i. e. immediately arrested. 

26. assured of his life before. His pardon is dated 22nd Dec. 1494 
(Cal. Pat. Rolls, 10 Hen. VII. p. 33). 

P. 122, 13. sadly, steadily, without wavering or change. The 
adj. sad is from the verb set, and so means fixed, firm, steady. So 
Wycliffe's translation calls Peter a sad stone, and Chaucer, in the Man 
of Law's Tale, line 645, says, 

"This messenger drank sadly ale and wine," 

by which he means persistently, going on steadily, without leaving off. 
Of course the transition of meaning to a look made fixed by sorrow is 
easy to follow, which is the most usual modern meaning of sad ; though 
in some parts of England it is still applied to bread, the dough of which 
has not risen properly, and so the bread is very close, firm, and solid. 

33. dangerous, i. e. a person to be dreaded, a quo periculum it7i7ni- 
nebat, from whom peril was to be apprehended. 

P. 123, line 3. Holt. The inventory of the money found at Holt 
is preserved in the Rolls' House. Chapter-House Records, A. 3. 10. 
fol. 29 (Spedding). 

7. old rent. The Latin explains by antiqtd census, that is, accord- 
ing to estimates which had been made long before, and of which the 
worth was now greatly increased. 

16. beheaded. He was arraigned Jan. 31st and executed on the 
1 6th Feb. 1494 — 5. From some entries given in the Excerpta Historica 
(pp. loi, 102) it is seen that the funeral of Sir William Stanley was 

18—2 



276 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

conducted at the King's cost. For his burial at Sion the charge is 
;^i5. 19J. The sum of ;^io was also given to him at his execution 
probably as a guerdon to the executioner. Another entry there in con- 
nection with the funeral is a payment of ^"2 to one Simon Digby. 

25. the conditional, i. e. the conditional particle if, which he used, 
which rendered his statement only equivalent to a statement made upon 
a supposition, and not a direct acknowledgement of Warbeck. 

28. dangerous thing, i. e. if persons might be allowed to qualify 
their words of treason, by framing them in sentences with ifs and ands, 
and so utter any malicious and traitorous words, but yet keep clear of 
the peril of a trial. 

31. blanch, properly = to whiten, hence to remove any blackness or 
darkness, and thus to clear or lighten in any wise, as here of danger. 

32. Elizabeth Barton. On the history of this woman and her 
ravings, and how greater people, as More and Fisher, came to suffer 
for giving credence to her, see Knight's History of England, II. 352 
seqq. She was executed 21st April, 1534. 

P. 124, line 4. would not admit of treasons upon condition, i.e. 
would not allow the shelter of a conditional clause to screen from 
punishment those who employed words which without the condition 
amounted to treason. 

g. over-ruling. This word is much more frequently used in the 
sense of controlling, swaying, but the Latin text explains it by abnegatio, 
a denial. I have not found another example of the word thus em- 
ployed. 

15. as those times were, i. e. considering the unsettled nature of the 
times. 

16. somewniers. The statement is from Bernard Andre, as quoted 
by Speed. 

P. 125, line 2. pressing down, &c., alluding to the expression in 
Luke vi. 38. Bacon is rather fond of biblical phrases and allusions. 
Another occurs in this very page, line 12, "a little leaven," &c. 

15. time enough, i. e. in time enough. P'or this idiomatic omis- 
sion of the preposition, cf. Shaks. i Hen. IV (ll. i. 45) : 

Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London ? 
Time enough to go to bed with a candle. 

16. stayed long enough to cfidanger it, 1. e. tarried before his coming 
long enough to let the king come into great danger. 

19. the more because, &c., i.e. which qualities were of the greater 
value because he was gentle and moderate. 

P. 126, line I. <^2/^//=c break down, enfeeble. Cf. More's Utopia 
(Pitt Press Series), p. 6, "mine old good wil and hartye affection 
towardes you is not by reason of long tract of time. ..at all quayled and 
diminished." 

5. at a gaze, Lat. attoniti, astounded, terrorstricken. Cf. Shaks. 
Lucr. 1 149 : 

**As the poor frighted deer that stands at gaze." 

7. what with . . .what tvith, Lat. partini . . .partim, partly. . . partly. Cf . 



NOTES. 277 

More's Utopia (Pitt Press Series), p. 5, *^what by the force of his pitthie 
argumentes...and what by hys authority he persuaded me." 

10. by the thread. Lat. sigillatim, i.e. singillatim, one by one. 

11. Barley. "William Barlee, alias Barley, of Aldebury (Herts), 
Esquire," received his pardon on July 12, 1498 (Spedding). 

13. at the length. This expression is not often found with the 
article. Lat. ad extremum, at last. But it is found in the first quarto 
of Shaks. M. of Ven. ii. 2. 84, and is so printed in the Globe edition, 

"But at the length truth will out." 

P. 127, line 5. of both robes, representatives of the army and of the 
long robe of the law. For the prior was to act as Chancellor, while 
Poynings held both a military and civil power. 

both robes. For an illustration of this expression cf. Naunton's 
Fragmenta Regalia, pp. 31 and 34 (Arber's Reprints). "The Queen 
began to need and to seek out for men of both Garbs, and so I conclude 
and rank this great instrument of state (i.e. Lord Burleigh) amongst the 
Togati ( = civilians, lawyers) for he had not to do with the sword." 
And again, "Those brave men and plants of honour which acted on 
the theatre of Mars... of which rank, the number will equal if not exceed 
that of the gown-tnen .^^ 

the Prior of Lanthony. This was Henry Deane, at this time bishop- 
elect of Bangor. He was subsequently translated to Salisbury, and in 
1 50 1 succeeded Morton as Archbishop of Canterbury, which see he held 
till his death, 16th Feb. 1502 — 3. 

19. the earl of Kildare. This earl, Gerald Fitz-morris, was at- 
tainted ist Dec. 1494, by Poynings' Parliament, but that attainder was 
reversed by the English Parliament in October, 1495. 

28. Poyniiigs' law, known as the statute of Drogheda. There are 
two acts known by the name of Sir Edward Poynings, whereby English 
law was establislied in Ireland, and the Irish legislature surrendered its 
pretence to pass measures which had not first been approved in London. 
See Froude's English in Ireland, Vol. i. p. 35. 

P. 128, line 12. Sir William Capel. His prosecution occurred in 
May, 1495. Pie received a pardon (of course on composition) on Jth 
Nov. following. On the other chop (see infra, line 10) compare text, 
p. 209. 

P. 129, line 13. the north afar off^ i.e. to Latham in Lancashire. 

1 4. come to the close. The metaphor is taken from the action of 
wrestlers. 

P. 130, line 9. run upon an head, &c. The Lat. explains by 
omnia confuse agere et miscere, to act confusedly and muddle everything. 

The King visited Latham on 25th June, 1495 (see Pol. Vergil). 

P. 131, line I. Sir Richard Guildford. His employments under 
Henry were numerous (see Mat. for Hist, of Hen. VII.), where, p. 68, 
he is appointed master of the ordinance and master of the armoury. 
On p. 97 he has to make preparation for the king's coronation. Cf. 
also pp. 407, 499. 

7. the Serjeants* feast. In old times there were great ceremonies 
attendant upon the creation of Serjeants at Law. Numerous notices of 
these feasts occur in Hall, Holinshed, Grafton, and Stowe. Sir John 



2 78 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

Fortescue in his de Laudibus Legiwi Atiglice, p. 114, tells how each new 
Serjeant held a feast for seven days, like that at a coronation : that he 
spent £i(>o pounds, and that he gave gold rings and liveries of cloth. 
Festivities of so gorgeous a character might well admit of being presided 
over by the king in person. Bacon notices a second feast (p. 197), 
where though mention is not expressly made of the presence of the 
King, yet the event seemed of enough importance to be included in the 
list of marked occurrences. 

16. King Charles had conquered the realm of Naples. Charles VIII 
had been encouraged to make good his claim to the throne of Naples 
by Ludovico Sforza, called, from his swarthy complexion, the Moor, who 
had usurped the government of Milan from his nephew John Galeazzo 
Sforza. The duchess of Milan, who was a granddaughter of the reign- 
ing king of Naples, appealed to her family to assist her in restoring her 
husband's power. It was in fear of the Neapolitan intervention in Milan 
that Ludovico invited the French king into Italy. Charles readily con- 
sented to an expedition which fell in with his own views. He assembled 
his army at Lyons, and, after some slight delays in his course, entered 
Rome 31st Dec. 1494- The Pope (Alexander VI) was compelled to pro- 
mise Charles the investiture of the kingdom of Nai)les, and placed host- 
ages in the king's hand, among the rest his own son, Caesar Borgia (who 
however speedily absconded in the dress of a groom), until the com- 
pletion of the conquest. Success attended the further progress of the 
invasion. The Neapolitans hardly offered any resistance. Alphonso 
II, who had but lately succeeded his father Ferdinand I, abdicated as 
soon as the French approached, and fled to Sicily, where he shortly 
after died. His son, Ferdinand II, finding himself deserted by his 
troops and threatened by an insurgent population, withdrew in his turn 
precipitately from Naples, and Charles and his troops entered the city 
22nd Feb. 1494 — 5. But the conquest, so easily won, intoxicated 
Charles, and he gave himself up to every kind of voluptuous enjoyment, 
and totally neglected to secure and consolidate his authority in his 
newly acquired dominions. Public offices and dignities were distributed 
exclusively among his French subjects, while the native aristocracy 
were treated with coldness and disdain, so that feelings of bitter hos- 
tility were quickly engendered against him among all parties. Two 
months of frivolity and maladministration had scarcely passed before 
Charles was made aware of the league mentioned in the text, the parties 
to which are enumerated on the next page (132). Ludovico, who 
brought in Cliarles, had grown alarmed, and devised this alliance 
among the powers of Europe to cut off the retreat of the French from 
Italy. The compact between the powers was signed at Venice on 
March 31st, and Charles was informed of it through his envoy at that 
place, Philip de Commines. He at once determined to evacuate Naples. 
He departed from that city on the 30th of May, leaving one half of his 
army as a garrison under his cousin, the Count of Montpensier, whom 
he appointed viceroy. The retiring troops rapidly traversed the Roman 
states and gained the Tuscan border, and finding that Florence (now 
under the rule of Peter de Medici) was in a state of revolutionary com- 
motion turned aside to Pisa and left a garrison there. Their road 



NOTES. 279 

to Parma was obstructed by Gonzaga Marquis of Mantua and the allied 
troops, but the French, though in much inferior numbers, defeated their 
opponents at the village of Fornovo. They then pressed forward to 
Vercelli, where Charles was joined by the Duke of Orleans. He nego- 
tiated a peace with Ludovico Sforza, which left the latter in peaceable 
possession of Milan (John Galeazzo had died while Charles was in 
Italy), and so passing the Alps, by the same route along which they had 
advanced fourteen months before, the French reached Lyons on 9th 
Nov. 1495. 

27. faction of the Angeovines. The kingdom of Naples had be- 
longed to the house of Anjou, and had only been bequeathed to the 
French King in the time of Lewis XI, by the last Angeovin prince, 
Charles, count of Maine and Provence. Of course all favourers of the 
old line were eager for vengeance on the Aragonese dynasty, and had 
expected that the French would not treat them in the same m.anner as 
they treated the partizans of that dynasty. 

30. Ostia. At the mouth of the Tiber. It was recovered for the 
Pope by the "great Spanish captain," Gonsalvo de Aguilar, who was 
the commander on behalf of Ferdinand II. 

P. 132, line 7. Ferdinando the yoiingdr. Ferdinand II. died (Sept. 
7, 1496) soon after the recovery of his kingdom, and on his death his 
dominions fell to his uncle Frederick. 

16. Augustino Barbadico. He was doge of Venice from 1495 
to 1502. 

20. a fee of the church. The King of Naples was counted a vassal 
of the pope, and so if the liege-lord were a party to the treaty, his feu- 
datories would be included in its provisions. 

22. Ccciie, duchess of York. She was the daughter of Ralph 
Nevile, earl of Westmoreland. The three princes crowned were Ed- 
ward IV, Edward V, and Richard III. The four murdered were 
Edmund earl of Rutland her second son, who is said to have been mur- 
dered in cold blood after the battle of Wakefield, at the age of seven- 
teen ; George, earl of Clarence, put to death by Edward IV ; and the 
two princes Edward V and Richard, duke of York, murdered in the 
Tower. 

27. parliament. This parliament met October 14th, 1425. 

P. 133, line 4. a law of a strange Jiatiire. This act (11 Hen. VII. 
c. i) exempts from the penalties of treason those who shall henceforth 
serve a de facto King. Bacon calls this act magnanimous rather than 
provident, because of the provision which it made for the safety of all 
those who should henceforth fight on the winning side. If, therefore, 
some pretender should rise up and by the power of the sword dethrone 
Henry, his adherents were by this act freed from all penalties if ever 
Henry should be able to recover his throne. 

17. The quotation is from ii. Sam. xxiv. 17. 

32. conclude itself =%t\. limits to its future action by any precedent 
ordinance. 

P. 134, line 13. a shoj-ing or nnder-propping act. This act (11 
Hen. VII. c. 10) by providing a means whereby a subsidy or benevo- 



28o HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

Icnce may be levied, gave to a benevolence a sort of statutory recogni- 
tion and countenance. 

■21. The attai?it: this was to punish the jury who in any civil action 
had given a false verdict ; which false verdict had before this act been 
regarded as a final settlement, and the party aggrieved by it had been 
without remedy. The act is ii Hen. VII. c. 21. 

26. the indictors, i. e. the grand jury, who find the bill. 

32. favour of life. In capital cases the juries ought not to be 
subjected to the risk of pains and penalties, lest they should feel 
unwilling to give due weight to any extenuating circumstances, which 
might lessen the gravity of the offence which they were trying. 

P. 135, line 2. not quit the charge, i.e. the entire sum at issue 
would not pay the expense of proceeding with an action of attaint. 

4. been advanced, i.e. received lands. Lat. ad terras proviotce. 
By this act (ir Hen. VII. c. 20) if any woman had an estate in dower, 
or for term of life, or in tail, any alienation by such wife of the inherit- 
ance of her deceased husband is declared void. 

10. charitable. This law (ir Hen. VII. c. 12) is so called because 
it regards it as better that the poor man should be able to vex than that 
he should seem to suffer a wrong by being unable to sue. 

21. watching of beacons upon the coasts, &c. There are some 
interesting memoranda published in the last Report (Fifth) of the His- 
torical AfSS Commission, taken from the records of the corporation of 
New Romney, in reference to this period, e. g. p. 548, " Paid two men 
watching by the sea shore 4d. " p. 549, "Paid a serjeant of master 
Ponynges carrying a mandate of our Lord the King as to Peter War- 
bekke 8d." This last is dated 1497. 

33. J^ifig of Scotland. James IV, who began to reign in 1488 
and was killed at Flodden-field in 15 13. 

P. 136, line 14. into Scotland. He arrived at Stirling 20th Nov., 

1495- 

27. niay be pleased. See note to Dedication, line i. The speech 

here given is taken almost entirely from Speed. 

P. 137, line 25. The allusions are to Daniel vi. 22, ii. Kings xi. 2, 
and Genesis xxii. 12. 

P. 139, line 21. in the person of Henry the sixth. Alluding to 
the succour rendered to Queen Margaret, who 1464 was in Scot- 
land when making preparations previous to the battle of Hedgeley 
Moor. 

P. 140, line II. Lady Catharine Gordon, daughter of George 
Gordon, earl of Huntley. She was afterwards married to Sir Matthew 
Cradock, and was buried with him in the church of Swansea in Wales, 
where their tomb still exists. 

P. 1 4 2, line 8. certain of our sisters. Beside Elizabeth, wife of 
Henry VII, the other daughters of Edward IV who married were (i) 
Cecilia who married John Lord Wells, (2) Anne who was wife of 
Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk, and (3) Catharine who became wife 
of William Courtney, earl of Devonshire. 

9. sister of the earl of Warwick. This was Margaret countess of 



NOTES. 281 

Salisbury, who was afterwards beheaded 27"May, 1541. Imhoff, {Reg. 
Mag. Brit. Hist. Geneal.) page 31, says that she was married by Henry 
VII to a person below her in degree, a Welshman named Sir Richard 
Pole, afterwards made Knight of the Garter and Chamberlain to 
Arthur Prince of Wales. 

13. Most of the names here given which have not been already 
noticed are of persons who were among the early adherents of Henry 
VII, and to whom some of his first grants were made. The Lovel 
meant here is probably Thomas Lovel, Speaker of the House of Com- 
mons, elected 8 Nov. 1485 (see Mat. for Hist, of Hen. VII. p. 113). 
One William Smith was keeper of the hanajier of the chancery {ibid. p. 
16). Master Oliver King was archdeacon of Oxford (/<^?V/. pp. 192, 356), 
and was one of the commissioners appointed to meet the commissioners 
of Charles VIII (3 Dec. 1485) to agree upon and arrange a truce be- 
tween England and France, and he was on a second commission 
appointed to take possession in the King's name of Calais, Rysebank, 
Guysnes, and Hammes. David Owen was chief carver to the King 
{ibid. pp. 233, 242, 278) and had a grant of £^0 a year for life. He 
is styled "the King's beloved Knight." John Turbervill, Knt. is [ibid. 
pp. 6r, 64) constable and keeper of Corffe castle in Dorsetshire, and 
also coroner and marshal of the King's household. Sir William Tyler 
is appointed a commissioner and controller of the King's mines of tin, 
lead, copper, gold and silver in England and Wales [ibid. p. 317). He 
is also made Constable of the Castle of Sudeley, and has other distinc- 
tions. Richard Cholmondely is made guardian of the possessions of the 
late John Eggerton during the minority of his heir {jbid. p. 9). Empson, 
no doubt the afterwards notorious Richard Empson. He was made 
attorney general of the duchy of Lancaster on 13th Sept. 1485 {ibid. 
p. 549). James Hobart is a member of an important commission ap- 
pointed to enquire into the extent and other particulars of the English 
possessions in France {ibid. p. 356). A pardon is granted to John Cutte 
of London, gentleman, on 29th Nov. 1485, for all manner of offences 
committed before that date {ibid. p. 187). No doubt the offences were 
against the house of York, and so were merits in Henry's eyes. Henry 
Wyot is made bailiff of the lordship of Methwold, parcel of the duchy of 
Lancaster {ibid. p. 581). 

In Speed and in the MS of Bacon's Life of Hen. VII, which Mr 
Spedding has used, the list of names is somewhat longer. Sir Charles 
Somerset, who was captain of the King's guard (see Mat. Hist, of H. 
VII. p. 327) is mentioned. Also Robert Lytton, who has an interest 
in a licence of alienation granted 3rd Dec. 1485 {ibid. p. 193) and Gyl- 
forde (most likely Sir Richard Gyldforde) who was early employed in 
Henry's service {ibid. 229, 232, 402). 

P. 144, line 19. do all men to wit, i.e. proclaim unto all men, 
make all men to know. Wit is the infinitive mood of the old verb 
to wit. 

P. 145, line I. edify with, an unusual expression for to prez>ail with, 
to moz-e and influence. Lat . permovit. 

3. the company he came in. The feuds between the inhabitants of 



282 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

the border land between England and Scotland had created a permanent 
spirit of dislike between the peoples of the two countries. 

5. rode. This word which is more commonly spelt 7-oad presents a 
curious instance of change of meaning. At the present day it is used 
only in the sense of a highway or well marked path. But, as may be seen 
from Macaulay {Hist. Vol. I, p. ^89), roads of this character were very 
uncommon in the days when Bacon wrote and for some time after ; and 
the word road was employed as raid (a dialectic variety of the same 
word) is now used, to signify ati inroad. See i. Saml. xxvii. 10, where 
Achish, anxious that David should spread havoc among all the enemies 
of the Philistines, inquires "Whither have ye made a road to-day?" 
meaning, Against whom has your assault been directed? 

30. babies, i.e. dolls: cf. Macbeth ill. 4. 106, "The ^a/n/ of a girl." 
The Lat. is, circa piipas rixari. 

31. Bacon having mentioned by anticipation in the previous clause 
the attack on Northumberland, now alludes to it, though it has not yet 
taken place. 

P. 146, line 8. good order: the Latin explains tins as meaning good 
contributions ; bonis contributionibns corroborata. 

ro. for ivant of vent, i.e. because all exportation had ceased: yet 
they bought up all the native produce though it had to lie dead in 
their hands. 

\2. Viscount IVells. This was John, Lord Wells, the first husband 
of Cecilia, the second daughter of Edward IV. He was theivfore the 
King's brother m law. He was made by Henry, steward of the lands 
of the Duke of Buckingham during the minority of Edward his son and 
heir. 

Kendal, prior of St John's, i.e. Sir John Kendal, Prior of the 
order of St John of Rhodes (see Gairdner's Letters, Richd. HL and 
Hen. Vn. i. 402, and ii. 87, 104, 318, 323 — 325). 

15. the archduke. The archduke's commissioners were received 
in London on Candlemas Eve (i Feb.) 1495 — 6, and the treaty was 
concluded in the following Aj^ril. (Spedding). 

16. Lord Bevers. Styled by Philip in a letter given in Gairdner's 
Letters, &c. (ii. p. d^ "Our wellbeloved and faithful cousin, lieutenant 
and governor-general of our country of Artois, and admiral of the sea, 
the Lord de Beures. " 

P. 147, line 10. parlia))ie)it. This met on i6th January, 1496 — 7, 
and in it there were voted supplies for the Scottish war. 

25. fifteenths. This should be, according to the name, a fifteenth 
part of men's goods, but it had long before this time been fixed at a 
definite sum, much less than that amount. 

26. iron at the top, &c. , i.e. there was a great shew of arming and 
preparation for a fight, but generally the result was that the gold and 
silver was coffered by the King. 

P. 148, line 1. exacting upon the trade, i.e. imposing exactions on 
all goods which came under their hands, as most of the merchandise of 
England would do. 

8. subsidy. This was granted 13th Feb. 1496—7. 



NOTES. 283 

32. escuage. Bacon in his Index Vocahdorinn explains this, as 
•* the obligation by which the King's tenants were bound to serve in 
the wars against the Scots." 

P. 149, line 15. joint and several pratings, addresses made to 
the people sometimes in assemblies, and sometimes singly and pri- 
vately. 

26. ever at pleasiire, i.e. always ready to go where the people 
please. 

31. provost of Perin. The Latin says Propositus Perkini= Perkin's 
provost. But Hall and Grafton both give Peryn. 

32. Lord Audley. This was James Touchet, 14th Lord Audley. 
He is mentioned in Gairdner's Letters and papers HI ustrative of the reigns 
of R. ILL aftd H. VLI, vol. ii. 326, as one of the adherents of Perkin 
Warbeck. He had served with Henry in France. See Dugdale's 
Baronage, voL ii. 29. 

P. 150, line I. popular, i.e. hunting after popular favour. A not 
very common use of this word. 

18. Earl of Kent. See notes on p. 100. 15. 

Lord Abergavenny. This was George Nevill, son of the Lord 
Abergavenny who died in the 7th year of Hen. VH. After his com- 
mand at Blackheath, this nobleman, in the 14th year of the King, was 
imprisoned on suspicion of favouring Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suf- 
folk, but no guilt being proved against him. he was set free, and came 
into great favour both with this King and his successor. He died 
in 27 Hen. VHL (15.^5). See Dugdale, i. 310. 

19. Lord Cohham. This is John Brooke. In the seventh year 
of the King's reign this nobleman was in the expedition made into 
Flanders on behalf of Maximilian against the French. He was kins- 
man of his coadjutor Lord Abergavenny, having married the daughter 
of Edward Nevill, a former Lord Abergavenny. He died in 1506. 

29. Blackheath. According to the old Chronicle so frequently cited 
by Mr Spedding this encampment took place on Friday, June i6th. 

P. 152, line I. ancient Indian emblem. The only explanation of this 
allusion which I have been able to find is in Plutarch's Life of Alex- 
ander the Great, chap. 65, in a dialogue between Calanus, one of the 
Indian wise men, and Alexander. In North's translation, the words are : 
"It is reported that this Calanus did shew Alexander a figure and 
similitude of his kingdom, which was this. He threw down before him 
a dry scare piece of leather, and then put his foot upon one of the ends of 
it. The leather being trodden down on that side rose up in all parts else; 
and going up and down withal still treading upon the sides of the 
leather, he made Alexander see that the leather being trodden down on 
the one side did rise up of all sides else, until such time as he put his 
foot in the midst of the leather, and then all the whole leather was 
plain alike. His meaning thereby was to let Alexander understand that 
the most part of his time he should keep in the midst of his country, 
and not to go far from it. " The idea here is exactly that contained in 
our text, though a dry skin, and not a bladder, is the emblem made use 
of. 



284 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 

19. that it stood him upoit = \.t. that it was of the highest import- 
ance. Cf. for the expression Hamlet v. 2. 63, 

**Doth it not, thinks't thou, stand me now upon?" 

See also Abbot's Shakespearian Gram. p. 138. The preposition is to 
be closely kept to the verb. The phrase = It stands upon (is of import- 
ance) to me. 

30. corners of horse. The Lat. has turmis aliquot equittim = son\e 
squadrons of cavalry. No doubt corners is due to the Lat. cormt, used 
frequently in this military sense. 

P. 153, line ir. St George's fields. The open nature of the country 
here at this time may be well seen in the map prefixed to Stow's 
Survey. 

29. Tate, the lord ?nayor. John Tate (the younger) mercer, son 
of Thomas Tate of Coventry. 

30. Shaw. Sir John Shaw. 

Haddon. Sir Richard Haddon. The King made this Mayor, 
Robert Shefield the Recorder, and both the Sheriffs Knights for their 
service against the rebels at Blackheath field. (vStow's Survey, vol. v. 
p. 126). 

P. 154, line 13. two and twentieth of June. This is the date given 
by Stowe. The old Chronicle however calls it the 17th, which is no 
doubt right. The 22nd of June, 1497, fell on a Thursday. (Spedding). 

20. as at the receit. The Latin explains rcbelles intaxeptui-i, to in- 
tercept the rebels. 

27. The army, i. e. the body of the rebels. 

P. 155, line 2. recovei-ed, here simply won, gained, with no indica- 
tion that he had been previously dispossessed of it. 

10. cut in pieces. The Latin says devicti, conquered. 

15. two thousand. Stowe says oddly three hundred. 

P. 156, line I. beheaded. On Wednesday, June 28th, (Old 
Chron. ) 

3. at Tyburn. On Tuesday, June 27th. (Old Chron.) 

10. and to take out, i.e. and (were permitted) to take out. The 
governing verb being supplied from the idea of the previous verb were 
pardoned. 

P. 157, line 26. tall soldiers, i.e. brave. For this use of -the word 
cf. Shakesp. Rich. IIL i. 4. 36, "Spoke like a tall fellow that respects 
his reputation." The Latin has militum fortissimorum. 

33. doing good, i.e. producing any effect. 

P. 158, line 8. Aton, i.e. Ayton on the Eye in Berwickshire. 

18. Peter Hialas, i.e. Peter D'Ayala. For notices of him and his 
mission (see Gairdner's Zif/^^rj, &c. ; Rich. IIL and Hen. VII. i. 118, 
124; ii. 91. 365, 878). 

P. 159, line 9. heart. Here means /;7^(?, dignity. 

Ti. of. For of '\\\ this sense cf. supra, p. 64, 1. 13, and the note 
there. 

15. /^/ = hesitate. The Lat. has non diibitabat. 

33. The commissioners met ; 2X}&(S\ivs^ ^^\iiC\idXiZ.x\,y.i\\. 17). 



NOTES. 285 

P. 161, line 29. Taking his leave. Perkin sailed from Scotland on 
July 6th, 1497. (See Tytler, iv. p. 385). After Perkin's departure the 
commissioners met again, and in the first instance agreed upon a truce for 
seven years. This was concluded Sept. 30, 1497. Soon after, the term 
of truce was extended to the lives of the two kings and a year after the 
death of the survivor. This was proclaimed in London on Dec. 5th 
next following. 

P. 162, line 6. cap of maintenance — sometimes called cap of state, 
one of the regalia granted by the Popes to the sovereigns of England. 
It was carried before the monarch at the coronation or on other occa- 
sions. In modern times such honours have been granted to private 
families. 

7. Pope Innocent had done the like, in 1488. See Leland (vol. IV. 
p. 244). 

10. palace of PauVs. This is called in the Latin palatium Episcopi 
Londo7iiensis. It was at the north-west corner of St Paul's Churchyard 
(see Maitland's Hist, of London, ii. 1172). 

13. AUhalloxvs day. All Saints Day (Nov. ist). 

17. greece. The Latin is super gi'adus, from which latter word 
greece is derived, passing through the French gre. Puttenham uses the 
word in the plural [Arte of Eng. Poesie, Arber's Reprints p. 52.) 
"Theatrum as much to say as a beholding place, which was also in such 
sort contrived by benches and greeces to stand or sit upon, as no man 
should empeach another's sight." 

P. 163, line 33. the blacksmith's town, i.e. where Michael Joseph 
had lived. 

P. 164, line 7. Richard the fourth. Bacon is here quoting from 
Speed, who is in error. Perkin's Scotch proclamation ran in the name of 
"Richard, by the grace of God, king of England, Lord of Ireland, 
Prince of Wales." ' The Latin translation has omitted the erroneous 
statement. See Mr Spedding's note. 

15. besieged the city of Exeter. On Sunday, Sept. 17th. 

21. the King, i.e.' Perkin, who called himself King Richard. 

P. 166, line 6. the eleventh hour, alluding to the parable of the 
labourers in the vineyard, Matt. xx. 9. 

9. Sir Rice ap Thotnas. Made constable, lieutenant and steward of 
Brecknock in the King's first year, likewise chamberlain of South 
Wales. See Materials for Hist, of Hen. VII, pp. 105, 109. 

12. The earl of Devonshire. William Courtney, Earl of Devon- 
shire, was the queen's brother-in-law, having married Catharine, a 
daughter of Edward IV. See Text, p. 194. 

13. the Ca7'ews. For a notice of this family, distinguished in 
Devonshire since 1300 as the Carews of Haccombe, and one branch of 
which became earls of Totnes, see Lyson's Britannia, vol. vi. p. cxiv. 

the Fulfords, of Fulford, in the parish of Dunsford. This family 
can be traced back to the time of Richard I. See Lyson, as above, 
p. cxlv. 

18. The duke of Buckingham, i.e. Edward Stafford. Seep. 18. 
14, and note. 



286 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

^3. the proverb. I have not been able to discover the source of 
this proverb, which seems to imply that when all is easy, as in a down- 
hill journey, every small assistance is offered and will be of use. 

16. raised his siege. On Monday, i8lh of September. 

P. 167, line 7. Beivdly, i.e. Bevvley, or Beaulieu. His flight took 
place on the 2ist September. 

P. 168, line II. entrance into Exeter. The King arrived here on 
October 7th. 

P. i6q, line 14. the Lord Darcy. This was Thomas, Lord Darcy, 
who succeeded his father in the 3rd year of Henry VH. He was one ot 
those lords who marched with I'homas, Earl of Surrey to the relief of 
Norham Castle when it was besieged by the Scots. Beside the commis- 
sion mentioned in the text he was made Constable of Bamborough Castle, 
and next year Captain of the town of Berwick, and Warden of the East 
and Middle Marches of Scotland. In the iSth year of Henry VH, Lord 
Darcy was one of the commissioners for receiving the oath of James IV 
of Scotland upon a treaty of peace. He flourished in the whole of this 
reign and in the next until the time of the Pilgrimage of Grace, when 
being, with the Archbishop of York, in the castle of Pontefract, he sur- 
rendered it to the rebels. For this he was found guilty of treason and 
beheaded on Tower Hill, June 20, 1539. 

^\. treasure. The original return of the fines then levied is pre- 
served in the British Museum, See Ellis' Letters, istSer. Vol. i. p. 38. 
(Spedding.) 

P. 170, line 8. churtn. Murmur, noise, perhaps A. S. cyrm = a din, 
especially the noise of birds. The form char??!, occurs in this sense, but 
not ch7irm. See Halliwell's Diet. (s. v.). Mr Spedding prints chunnne. 
The 1622 edition has churme. The Latin translator evidently did not 
know what to do with it and so substitutes cum choro. 

12. the Kin ^, i.e. to Perkin, who had called himself King Rich- 
ard IV. 

P. 171, line 7. a great fire. On the night of St Thomas Day (21st 
Dec.) about nine o'clock. 

14. Sebastian Gabato (generally written in English, Cabot) son of 
John Cabot, was born at Bristol about 1477. He was employed by 
Henry VII in 1495, and in 1497 discovered what is now known as New- 
foundland. Both father and son were famous as navigators. Sebastian 
died in 1557 after a life of great adventure and success. 

15. seen in, i.e. acquainted with, skilled in. Cf. More's Utopia 
(Pitt Press Series), p. 7, "In the knowledge of the Latin tongue, he 
was not so well sene as to be hable to judge of the finenes or coursenes 
of my translation." 

1 7. Christophoriis Cohcinbus. Columbus saw the light on St Salva- 
dor on 3rd October, 1492. 

P. 172, line 3. Seneca's prophecy, alluding perhaps to what Seneca 
says of the Atlantic, Qttcest. Nat. iv. 2. 

Plato's antiquities. The substance of what Plato says, in his Timceus^ 
and in the Critias, is that the Atlantis was a large island in the Western 
Ocean situate opposite to the Straits of Gades (Gibraltar). There were 



NOTES, 287 

other islands near it. Neptune settled in it with his ten sons, whose 
descendants reigned there for 9000 years. At length the island sank 
under water. For an account of all that has been written on the 
subject see Rees' Cyclopaedia, s. v. Atlantis. 

9. bearing the King in hand, i.e. inducing the King to believe. 
Lat . Regi fidem faciens. 

2^. King of Portugal. This was John II who reigned from 1481 
to 1495. The great problem before the navigators of that day v/as a 
passage to India by sea. The Portuguese were seeking to solve it by 
the circumnavigation of Africa. Diaz had already (in 148 7) doubled the 
Cape of Good Hope, and Don John was so much taken up with the one 
project that he could not listen to the other proposal for crossing the 
Atlantic and reaching India by sailing westward. 

P. 173, line 14. quarrelled, this word, derived from Lat. qicerela, 
means in the first instance to bring a complaint against, or as here, to 
upbraid, or murmur against. Cf. Montagu against Selden (on Tithes) 
427, "He quareleth the reading," ib. 516, "Except you can quarrell 
the translation." 

P. 1 74, line I r. Melross, \. e. Melrose in Roxburghshire. The abbey 
here, which is famous still as a magnificent ruin, was founded by King 
David I in 1136. 

32. more than well disposed. There had been a commission, for 
treating on the subject of this match, granted by Henry in the summer 
of 1496. 

P. 175, line 3. a littie before Chi'istmas, Mr Spedding says. "I 
think this is a mistake." The former treaty (see pp. 160, 161 and 
notes) was published a little before Christmas, 1497. The treaty now 
in question, which contains the article concerning the letters commenda- 
tory (Rymer xii. 724), was not concluded till the 12th July, 1499. ^^ 
was ratified by James on the 20th at Strivelin, and immediately after, 
that is on the i ith September, a commission was granted to Bishop P^ox 
to treat of the marriage. 

10. to lock in the borderers, i.e. to prevent those from coming into 
collision who had been in old times the cause of all the discords. 

13 Edmund. He was christened 24 Feb. 1498-9 and died June 
1 2th, 1500. 

15. Charles the French King. Charles VIII died 7th April 1498. 
The news reached London in the same month. 

20. all corners wen laid, i.e. every point was carefully watched. 

22. hotise of Bethlehem. Hall gives a rather fuller description of 
this place which he says is "beside Richmond in Southrey" (i.e. Surrey). 
His flight took place on Saturday, June 9th, 1498, according to the 
old Chronicle, and he was placed in the stocks on the Friday next 
following. 

P. 176, line 5. read his confession. That the student may have an 
opportunity of comparing the style of Hall with that of Bacon, and 
noticing the advance made within so short a period in English prose 
composition, the confession of Perkin is subjoined as given in Hall's 
Chronicle. "It is to be knowen, that I was borne in the toune of 



288 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

Turney in Flaunders, and my fathers name is John Osbeck, which sayd 
John Osbeck was comptroller of the sayde toune of Turney, and my 
mothers name is Katheryn de Faro. And one of my grauntsires upon 
my fathers side was named Diryck Osbeck which dyed, after whose 
death my grauntmother was maryed unto the withinnamed Peter 
Hamme, that was receaver of the forenamed toune of Turney, and 
deane of the botemen that rowe upon the water or ryver, called 
Leschelde. And my grauntsire upon my mothers side was Peter de 
Faro, whiche had in hys kepyng the keyes of the gate of sainct Jhons 
within the same toune of Turney. Also I had an uncle called master 
Jhon Stalyn, dwelling in the parish of sainct Pyas within the same toune, 
which had maried my suster, whose name was Jone or Jane, with whome 
I dwelled a certain ceason. And afterward I was led by my mother to 
Andwerp for to learne Flemmishe, in the house of a cousyn of myne, 
an officier of the said toune, called Jhon Stienbeck, with whome I was 
the space of halfe a yere. And after that I returned agayn to Turney, 
by reason of the warres that were in Flaunders. And within a yere 
folowing I was sent with a merchaunt of the sayd toune of Turney 
named Berlo, and his masters name Alexander, to the marte of And- 
warpe where I fell sycke, whiche sickenes contynued upon fy ve monethes. 
And the sayde Barlo set me to boorde in a skinners house, that dwelled 
beside the house of the English nacion. And by him I was from thence 
caryed to Barowe marte, and I lodged at the signe of the olde man, 
where I abode the space of two monethes. And after this the sayde 
Barlo set me with a merchaunt of Middelborough too servyce, for to 
leanie the language, whose name was Jhon Strewe, with whom I dwelled 
frome Christmas tyll Easter, and then I went into Portyngale, in the 
companye of Syr Edward Bramptones wyfe in a shype whiche was 
called the quenes shippe. And when I was come thether, then I was 
put in servyce to a knyghte that dwelled in Lusborne, whiche was called 
Peter Vacz de Cogna, with whome I dwelled a whole yere, whiche 
sayde knyght had but one eye. And because I desyred to see other 
countryes, I toke lycence of him, and then I put myself in servyce with 
a Bryton, called Pregent Mono, the which brought me with him into 
Ireland, and when we were there arrived in the toune of Corke, they of 
the toune, because I was arayed with some clothes of sylke of my saide 
maistres, came unto me and threeped upon me that I should be the 
duke of Clarence sonne, that was before lynie at Develyn. And foras- 
' much as I denied it, there was brought unto me the holy evangelist and 
the Crosse by the Mayre of the toune, which was called Jhon le Wellen, 
and there in the presence of him and other I toke myne othe as the 
truth was, that I was not the foresaid dukes sonne, nor none of his 
blood. And after this came unto me an Englishman, whose name was 
Stephen Poytron, with one Jhon Water, and saide to me in swearing 
great othes that they knew wel that I was kynge Rychardes bastard 
sonne : to whome I aunswered with like othes that I was not. And 
then they advysed me not to be afearde, but that I should take it upon 
me boldely, and if I woulde so do they woulde aide and assist me with 
all their powre agaynst the kyng of England, and not only they, bu^ 



NOTES. 289 

they were assured well that the erles of Desmond and Kyldare should 
do the same. For they forced not what party they toke, so that they 
might be revenged upon the kyng of England, and so against my will 
made me to learne English, and taught me what I should do and saye. 
And after this they called me duke of Yorke, second sonne of kynge 
Edward the fourth, because king Richardes bastard sonne was in the 
handes of the king of England. And upon this the said Jhon Water, 
Stephen Poytron, Jhon Tyler, Hughbert Burghe with many other as the 
foresayd Erles, entred into this false quarrell. And within shorte tyme 
after, the French king sent an Ambassadour into Ireland, whose name 
was Loyte Lucas, and master Stephen Fryan, to advertise me to come 
into Fraunce. And thence I went into Fraunce and from thence into 
Flaunders, and from Flaunders into Ireland and from Ireland into Scot- 
land, and so into England." 

^^. Sir John Digby. Among the Privy Purse expenses is an item 
(Sept. 23rd 1494) "for Thomas Digby and four yomen riding to feche 
Long Roger." These were the persons employed by Sir John, the one 
named being probably a relative whom he could trust, to arrest the 
servants whom Perkin had bribed. 

P. 177, line ■24. executed. Ralph Wilford was hanged on Shrove 
Tuesday, Feb, 13th, 1 498-9. 

31. of his order, i. e. he was not executed, because he was a clergy- 
man and so could claim privilege. 

P. 178, line 5. arraigned at iVestminster. This was November 
i6th, 1499. 

II. to destroy those that did not espy him first. This power was 
ascribed to the cockatrice. See Sir Thos. Brown, Vulgar Errors, Book 
III. ch. 7. 

16. three counsellors, i.e. Heme, Skelton and Astley (see text, 
p. 163). 

20. the mayor of Cork, called in Hall "Jhon Awater." 

32. beheaded on To7ver-hill. The Earl of Warwick was arraigned 
on the 19th of November, and beheaded on the 29th, 1499. 

P. 179, line 7. transplanted into other names. For some of the 
various families which can trace their origin to the Plantagenet line, see 
Imhoff, Hist. Genealogica, Tab. V. 

26. King Henry the eighth his resolution. This use of his as an 
equivalent for the old es of the possessive case was of common acceptance 
in Bacon's time. Its mistaken character is at once seen, when it is remem- 
bered that the same termination belongs to feminine nouns, after which 
his could of course not be used. We have an instance in the Book of 
Common Prayer, at the close of the Prayer for all conditions of men, 
" for Jesus Christ his sake." 

P. 180, line 18. Lord Saint John, i.e. Thomas Poynings, Lord 
St John of Basing. 

31. former treaties. Some new regulations about wool and the 
sale of cloth had been agreed upon between Henry and Philip, in the 
spring of 1499, ^"^^ proclaimed in London on 29th May in that year. 

33. duke of York, Prince Henry, afterwards Henry VIII. 

B. H. 19 



290 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 

P. i8i, line 5. in treaty. The marriage between Charles the son 
of Philip and the Princess Mary of England became afterwards the 
subject of a treaty. See Rymer (xiii. p. 171). 

I r. how drily, i. e. with what curtness and want of courtesy. P'or 
the facts see text, p. 119. 

14. father and father in law, Maximilian and Ferdinand. 

18. in tire. This form of the word use was common at this period. 
Cf. More's Utopia, Arber's Reprints, p. 121, "To keep in ure the feate 
and knowledge of sailing." A similar variation of these consonants 
may be seen in A.S. mi. forleSsan (to lose) and "^."^.forloren (lost, forlorn). 

i\, Lexvis, i. e. Lewis XII. 

26. "winning of the duchy of Milan. As soon as Lewis XII came 
to the throne he laid claim not only to the throne of Naples, but also to 
the duchy of Milan as the representative of his grandmother Valcntina 
Visconti, only daughter of the last duke of that name. Having secured 
the concurrence of the Pope and the cooperation or neutrality of the 
other powers, his army led by Stuart D'Aubigny and Trivulcio de- 
scended into Lombardy in August, 1499, without opposition. Ludovico 
Sforza fled to the Tyrol and claimed the protection of Maximilian. The 
French generals entered Milan in triumph on the 14th of Sept. without 
having fired a single shot. 

P. 183, line 1. year of jubile. The year of Jubile extended from 
Christmas, i499> to Christmas, 1500, therefore it coincided more nearly 
with the King's fifteenth year. Jas])er Pons came in 1499 — 5°- -^^r 
the articles of the bull of the Holy Jubile see Gairdners Letters, &c. 
(11. 93 — 100), where is an edifying list of the prices to be paid by all 
sorts of persons for their dispensations. 

7. yasper Pons, called in the above named document *' the right 
reverend father in God, Jasper Pon, prothonotary and doctor of Divinity 
of our said Holy Father, the pope's ambassador." 

9. Popre Leo. Alluding to those sent in the time of Leo X, to raise 
money by the sale of indulgences ; whose behaviour was so gross and 
irreverent as to lead to the demand for a Reformation. Tetzel (Luther's 
adversary) was one of the most energetic of these commissioners of Pope 
Leo. 

13. the King s/iatrd in the money. That this was not so, see 
Exceipta LListorica, p. 128, where is an entry of ;(^400o paid to "Caspar 
Pon " for the Pope's use, which shews that so far from sharing in the 
Jubile-money the King sent, of his own, a large sum for the Papal use. 

27. in person against the Turk. The old Chronicle quoted by Mr 
Spedding says, "This year came certain tidings to the King that the 
Turk had gotten the town Modon and made great destruction of the 
Christians. " 

P. 184, line 14. 7'ather solemn than serious, i.e. of a formal charac- 
ter, but without any serious intention of taking action in the matter. 

31. Kings of France and Spain. Henry's suggestion is that instead 
of these two Kings joining in the attack on Grajcia, in which common 
action they might disagree, it would be wise to give one of them the 
command of the navy. 



NOTES. 291 

P. 185, line 13. knights of Rhodes, the Knights of St John, This 
order founded in 1048 came and settled in Rhodes in 13 10, where they 
remained till 1522. 

20. to convert one of them. See Excerpta Historic a, p. 117, where 
on April 20, 1498, the King gives "to the herytik at Canterbury 
6s. 8d." Perhaps this was the man. The old Chronicle says that the 
convert "died a Christian man whereof His Grace have great honour." 
In spite of his conversion he was burnt all the same. See Fuller, 
Church Hist. iv. 15. 32. 

27. Ea7-l of Suffolk. See the table in notes, p. 230. 

P. 186, line 4. bei tig discontent. He fled in the month of August. 
"It seems," says Mr Spedding, "that the Earl had another cause of 
discontent. His elder brother John (earl of Lincoln) had been attainted 
during the duke their father's lifetime. When the duke died, Edmund 
(earl of Suffolk) claimed the honour and estate of his father. But 
Henry persisted in considering him as the heir of his brother, and gave 
him only the title of Earl with a small portion of his patrimony: — 
an instance of the troubles which Henry bred for himself from his aver- 
sion to the House of York." 

14. Lady Catharine. There seeais to be some mistake about the 
age of Catharine of Aragon. Miss Strickland, on the authority of a 
Spanish MS., says she was born on 15th Dec. 1485. So that she was 
not quite sixteen at the time of her marriage to Prince Arthur. 

The details which preceded this marriage are given in a note of 
Mr Spedding's (p. 212). It was first agreed upon on the 27th of 
March, 1489, before Arthur was three years old. On 2nd Nov. 1491, 
Catharine's dowry was settled, and it was arranged that she should be 
brought to England as soon as Arthur had completed his fourteenth 
year. On Oct. i, 1496, it was settled that if necessary for any urgent 
cause, the Pope should be applied to for a dispensation that the mar- 
riage by proxy should take place as soon as Arthur had completed his 
twelfth year. Arthur was twelve years old in Sept. 1498. The proxy 
marriage took place 19th May, 1499. On the 20th of Dec. 1499, the 
proxy marriage was approved by Ferdinand and Isabella, and on the 
28th May, 1500, the whole proceeding was ratified by Henry." These 
long previous treaties and contracts make against the idea that there 
was a very close connection between Warwick's execution and the final 
settlement of this marriage. 

P. 188, line 3. deceased at LudloT.v. This was 2nd April, 1502, so 
that Arthur's age was then about fifteen years and a half. 

ir. February. The date of Henry's creation as Prince of Wales is 
1 8th Feb. 1503. 

26. the five and t2vefitieth of January, i.e. in 1503. From this 
marriage was descended James V, father of Mary Queen of Scots, who 
was mother of James I of England. 

P. 189, line 5. Colliwfston, in Northamptonshire, about four miles 
from Stamford. It was a favourite residence of the King's mother, 
where she finished the house begun by Ralph Lord Cromwell. 

19—2 



292 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. 

6. Earl of Northumberland. Sir Henry Percy, the commander at 
Blackheath, 

II. three years. More than three years. Fox was formally com- 
missioned to treat of the marriage on the nth September, 1499. 

P. 190, line 2. Queen Elizabeth. She died Feb. 2nd, 1503. 

6. the better to set off flattery. The Latin gives quod adulationem 
redderet magis sapidarii., that he might give his flattery more flavour, 

19. Enipson. Richard Empson, the well-known instrument of 
Henry's exactions. j 

Dudley., Edmund Dudley, the father of John Dudley, who became 
earl of Warwick in the next reign, and duke of Northumberland under 
Edward VI, and was father of eight sons, among whom the most known 
are Lord Guildford Dudley, married to Lady Jane Grey, and Lord 
Robert, the famous Earl of Leicester, of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

24. triumphed always upon the deed done, i. e. secured the accom- 
plishment of what he aimed at by any means in his power, and then 
had his triumph. 

32. to cofnmit them, i. e. to prison, instead of proceeding with their 
trial upon the bills found against them. 

33. produce them, i. e. in court, to answer the charges laid against 
them. 

P. 191, line 6. the half-face. They had a shew of legal proceeding 
when they caused their victims to be indicted and had bills found, but 
soon they left off even this. 

9. in a court of comtnission, proceeding as if they were appointed 
special commissioners. 

14. tenures in capite. The tenures in capite were subject to the 
seven following incidents, aids, relief, primer seisin, wardship, marriage, 
fines for alienation, and escheat. 

false offices, feigned and invented duties to which the tenants were 
made liable. 

15. ivardships, the right whereby the child of a tenant in capite, 
while under age, becomes if left fatherless the ward of the feudal lord. 

liveries, sometimes called livery of seisin, which was the formal 
investiture of the tenant with his possessions, and was held absolutely 
necessary to complete the donation, and which of course had to be paid 
for. 

16. premier seisins, the right which accrues to the feudal lord to 
claim a certain sum when the heirs to an estate held from him are of 
full age. 

22. informations of intrusion, complaints of having encroached on 
the royal domain, which these men made with little or no ground. 
32. to find, to give such verdicts as they would direct. 
P. 192, line 5. working. The Latin giWQsflagellum, a scourge. 

9. than of rigour, i. e. than of being rigorously enforced. 

10. leading Jttrors, who would understand what was expected of 
them, and lead the rest of their number with them. 

\6. Henningham, called also Heveningham and Hedingham, is in 



NOTES. 



293 



Essex, and was at this time the seat of the Earl of Oxford. See Paston 
Letters (Gairdner), Vol. III. p. 352. 

24. It may please. See note on Dedication, line i. 

that were not for 77iine ease. To have so large a number of 
servants to maintain would be a very costly matter even for the Earl of 
Oxford. 

25. my retainers. The Latin explains, Servants who render occa- 
sional extraordinary service, but live at their own cost. 

32. fifteen thousand marks. The King visited Lord Oxford on the 
6th of August, 1498 (see Privy Purse Expenses of Hen. VII, p. 119), 
on which occasion the incident here narrated may have occurred. A 
heavier fine for a similar offence was exacted from Lord Abergavenny 
some years afterwards. In a memorandum of obligations and sums of 
money received by Edmund Dudley for fines and duties to be paid to 
the King (MS. Harl. 1877, ^- 47)> the following item appears as belong- 
ing to the 23rd year of this reign :^ 

Item ; delivered three exemplifications under the seal of the Lords 
of King's Bench of the confession and condemnation of the Lord Burga- 
venny for such retainers as he was indicted of in Kent ; which amount- 
eth unto, for his part only, after the rate of the months ;^69,9oo. 

It appears from the Calendar of Patent Polls (23 Hen. VII, Pt. II. 
p. r8) that George Nevile Knt. Lord Burgavenny received a pardon of 
all felonies, offences against the forest laws, &c. , on the i8th Feb. 
1507 — 8, two months before Henry's death. Fabyan mentions his 
being committed to the Tower "for a displeasure which concerned no 
treason" in May, 1506 (Speckling). 

P. 193, line 16. at Prince Arthur's marriage. A mistake. Fabyan 
and the old Chronicle both state that the Earl of Lincoln went abroad 
secretly in August, 1501, and in the Calendar of Patent Rolls (17 Hen. 
VII, Pt. 11. p. 4) Sir Robert Lovell is appointed, on Oct. 8, 1501, as 
receiver and surveyor of all lands, &c., in Norfolk and Suffolk, late the 
property of the rebel Edmund earl of Suffolk. 

19. his brother. Richard de la Pole. (See Dugdale, II. 191). He 
was afterwards slain in battle at Pavia in Italy in 1525. 

27. Sir Robert Ciirson, sometimes called Lord Curson. Maximilian 
created him a baron of the Roman empire. On his communications 
with Maximilian concerning Edmund de la Pole many documents are 
given in Gairdner's Letters, &c. 

P. 194, line 6. William de la Pole. This is a mistake. The 
brothers of the Earl of Suffolk alive at this time were only Humphrey, 
a cleric: Edward archdeacon of Richmond, and the Richard mentioned 
above. But Hall gives the same name, William de la Pole. 

7. Sir James Tirrel. The murderer of the princes in the Tower. 

Sir "John Windham. He with Tirrel was executed on May 6th, 
1502. 

9. George Lord Abergavenny. See note on p. 192, 1. 32. 

Sir Thomas Green. He is mentioned in Gairdner's Letters, &c. (i. 
226) in an account of the astrologers who were to be consulted as to the 



294 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 

chances of Edmund de la Pole's success; also (r. 410) as taking part 
in the preparations for the reception of Catharine of Aragon. 

24. bull of excommunication and curse. That Henry was wont 
in this way to confirm the credit of his spies see text, p. ir6. Fabyan 
says these men were cursed twice, on Sunday, 23rd October, 1502, and 
again on the first Sunday in Lent (March 5) 1503. Curson received his 
pardon May 5, 1504. 

P. 195, line 6. Joan his wife, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. 

9. his parliatnent. This was summoned for 25 January, 1503 — 4. 

16. a statute. This was 19 Hen. VH, c. 1, and provides that 
whosoever doth not attend upon the King being in person in wars shall 
lose such lands as he hath of the King's gift. 

22. frofu their house, i.e. from the time of leaving their house, as 
stated in the act. 

28. Another statute. This was 19 Hen. VH, c. 21, defining what 
small things wrought of silk may not be imported. Those having them 
in stock were allowed till Whitsunday 1505 to get them sold. 

P. 196, line 6. patents of gaols. This act is 19 Hen. VH, c. 
19, providing that the sheriffs shall have the keeping of the common 
gaols and the prisoners therein, and making them responsible for the 
safe custody; so all letters patent granting the keeping of any gaols 
were revoked. 

13. being fraternities in er'il, i.e. these corporations being fraterni- 
ties in evil. This statute is 19 Hen. VH, c. 7, and states that the by- 
laws against which it was directed had been unlawful and unreasonable 
ordinances, as well in prices of wares as in other things. 

18. to bring in the silver, &c. This act is 19 Hen. VH, c. 5. It 
allowed persons to convert their clipped coin into plate or bullion. 
It also describes the value at which the coins already in use are to be 
accepted. 

31. not the only statute. This was 19 Hen. VII, c. 12, but in 
this reign another statute against vagabonds appears in the eleventh 
year, c. 2. 

P. 197, line 2. as if the one, &c., i.e. as if the punishment of the 
one were of no avail without the putting down of the other : as though 
it were idle to get rid of one unless you got rid of the other. 

6. an eye to might and vudtitude, being on his watch to keep in 
check the power of the nobles in their retainers, and the gatherings of 
the people in riot. 

7. a subsidy. The King could at this time claim two reasonable 
aids, one for the knighting of his son, the other for the marriage of 
his daughter. The Commons offered him;i^40,ooo in lieu of them. 

8. the clergy. The clergy at this time formed a separate estate 
and taxed themselves by their own vote independently of the temporal 
estates of the realm. 

31. the serjeaiifs feast. See supra, p. 131, 1. 7 and note. This 
second feast was kept 13th Nov., 1503. 

33. Isabella Queen of Castile. She died 26th Nov., 150^. 



NOTES. 295 

P. 198, line 3. not foi- news at large, i.e. not merely a matter which 
concerned all persons alike, no piece of ordinary news. 
14. the other, i.e. the case of Ferdinand. 

P. 199, line 7. poor amity of Aragon. Poor, because Ferdinand 
would have lost Castile. 

13. Queen of N'aples. This was Joan widow of Ferdinand II of 
Naples, and niece of Ferdinand of Aragjon. 
16. ,^c?^/= a matter of contention. 

-20. Francis Marsin. Sir Francis Marsin was also employed in 
the communications between Lewis XII and Henry. See Gairdner's 
Letters, &c. (i. 289). He was likewise one of those present at the meet- 
ing between Henry and the Archduke Philip in 1500. 

James Braybrooke. Braybrooke is mentioned among the grooms 
and pages of the chamber present at the same meeting. 

21. John Stile. Stile is alluded to in the instructions given to 
Wolsey about the treaty of marriage between Henry and Margaret of 
vSavoy. He must have at some time been in trouble, for he received 
a pardon 16 June, 1502. See Gairdner, 1 1. 378. 

The commissioners went first to Valencia, where the two Queens 
were, and then to Segovia, where they arrived on the 14th of July, 1505, 
and had their interview with Ferdinand shortly afterwards. 

Marsin and Braybooke were paid ^s. a day and Stile 4^-. a day for 
four months, which was the time occupied by the mission. 

■29. the old... Queen of Naples. This was Joan, widow of Ferdinand I 
of Naples. She was a daughter of John II king of Aragon, and mother 
of the widowed queen mentioned p. 119, 1. 13. 

31. Doctor dc Piicbla. Rodrigo de la Puebla. For much of the 
correspondence of this envoy with Ferdinand, see Gairdner's Letters, &c. 
In 1507 King Henry granted to him the office of Master of Sherborne 
Hospital (Rymer, xiii. 167). 

P. 200, line 5. curious and exquisite. The commissioners report 
in regard to one point of their directions, "to mark and note well the 
features of her body," that the young queen was so covered with her 
mantle that they could only see her visage. 

P. 201, line 10. by continuance, by a long residence in the country. 

13. Pluto was better to him than Pallas, i.e. Pluto representing 
wealth and Pallas wisdom, the phrase implies that his plans did not 
succeed, though in gain of actual wealth he was verj^i fortunate. See 
additional Notes. 

12. which was the A'ings inon case, i.e. Prince Henry's popularity 
was greater than that of his father, and for this same reason, that the 
King had grieved the people by his exactions. See text. p. 211. 

25. ^imason. Michael Peter d'Almacan, secretary of Ferdinand 
and Isabella (see Rymer, xiil. 86). 

27. Charles Prince of Castile: afterwards the famous emperor 
Charles V. He was born at Ghent 24th February, 1500. 

31. Angolesme. This was Francis of Angouleme, duke of Valois, 
afterwards King Francis I of France. 

P. 202, line r. Madame de Fois, i.e. Germaine de Foix, niece to 
Lewis XII. 



296 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

12. entire, &c., to act more confidently and heartily towards 
Ferdinand, but to give great outward observance and diligence to his 
conduct towards Philip. 

16. both allies, both Philip the father of Charles, and Ferdinand, 
who was grandfather to that prince. 

23, As a specimen of the English of Grafton's Chronicle, a portion 
of the description of the unintended visit of the Archduke Philip to 
England is subjoined: "In this very season, and the yere of our Lord 
1505, Elizabeth Queene of Castell, wife to Ferdinand king of Arragon 
dyed without any issue male, by reason whereof the inheritaunce of 
Castell (because that kingdoms be not partible) discended to Lady Jane 
her eldest daughter by king Ferdinando, the which was maried to 
Philip Archduke of Austrich and Burgoyne, and Erie of Flaunders. 
Which kingdome he obtayned by hys wife, and had the possession of 
the same and was named, reputed, and taken, as king of Castell and 
Lyn. Wherefore the yere folowyng, about the sixt day of January, 
havyng a great navy prepared, he sayled out of Flaunders with his 
wife towarde Spaine, but he had sayled no great way, before that a sore 
tempest, by reason of contrariety of windes sodainly arose, so that the 
whole navy was tossed and chafed with the waves and sodaine scourges. 
In so much the winde havyng the maistry, dispersed and separated the 
ships asunder into divers places on the coast of England, The kinges 
ship with two other vesselles were blowen by tempest on the west 
part of the realme to the porte of Weymouth in Dorsetshire. Then 
king Philip which was not expert, and had not frequented the seas 
before, beyng weryed and unquieted both in minde and bodie, enteryng 
the ship boate to refreshe and repose himselfe a little, came a land con- 
trary to the mynd of his counsaile and capitaynes, which foresaw and 
knew well that the same landyng should be the occasion of lenger 
tariyng there. When it was knovven that straunge shippes were arrived 
there came thether a great number as well of noblemen, as of rurall 
persons that dwelle about that coast, to repulse and beate away him if 
he were their enemie. But when they perceyved he was their friend 
and lover, and driven thether by force of weather, Sir Thomas Trenchard 
knight, the chiefe of that companie, went to Philip king of Castell 
with all humanitie and lowlinesse, invityng and desyring him (if he 
would so vouchsafe) to visite his Manor and Mancion, which was even 
nighe at hande, trustyng thereby to have great thankes of the king his 
maister, if he could protract and cause hmi to tarye there, until such 
tyme as king Henry were certified of his arrivall, to whom with all 
diligente celeritie, he sent divers postes to notifie to his grace of king 
Philips landyng. This rumour beyng farther blowne abrode of this 
straimge Princes commyng, in a short space there assembled together a 
great multitude of people all a long the sea-coast. And among other 
there came first Sir John Carew with a goodly band of picked men. 
Which Sir John and Sir Thomas Trenchard entreated the king of 
Castell, not to depart until such tyme as he had spoken with king Henry 
his lovyng and faythful friend and allye, assuryng him that he would 
repayre thether within two or three daies at the most. King Philip 



NOTES. 297 

excused himseife by the necessitie of his weightie enterprise and impor- 
tunate cause, affyrming that long tariyng in matters of gravitie and 
doubtfull, ought to be exckided : wherefore he alleged that protractyng 
of tynie might turne him to great prejudice, — denying at the first to 
expect and tary the commyng of the king of England : but yet being per- 
swaded by reason in himseife, that he might be let and interrupted, if 
he v/oulde proffer once to go abrode to his shippes againe, at their 
gentle desyre and lovyng contemplation, assented to their humble peti- 
tion and request. 

32. Sir Thomas Trenchard., of Wolverton. For an account of this 
family, see Hutchin's Dorset, II. 151. It is there stated that John 
Russell of Berwick was sent for, as having been resident in Spain, to 
help his relative Sir Thos. Trenchard in interesting the archduke, and 
thus his family came into favour with Henry VII and that the foundation 
of the honours of the illustrious family of the Duke of Bedford dates from 
this time. 

P. 203, line 4. Sir John Carew. A member of the family of Carew 
of Haccombe in Devonshire. See Lyson's Britannia (Vol. vi. p. 46). 

ir. the Earl of Arundel. Thomas Fitz- Alan. He had served in 
Flanders in the wars in aid of Maximilian. His wife was a daughter of 
Earl Rivers, and one of his daughters had been the wife of John Earl of 
Lincoln. 

27. when they 7net last. See text, p. 180, 1. 16. 

33. were raised, i. e. by his accession to the kingdom of Castile. 

P. 204, line 5. changing his coicntenance, ^c. The Latin has Vul- 
tnque nonnihil ad seriiuji coniposito, *'with his looks somewhat changed 
to a solemn cast." 

30. shall not take his life. Henry so far kept his word, but the 
Earl was put to death in 15 13 by Henry VIII. 

P. ■205, line 7. enforced, i. e. forced by Henry to send for the Earl 
of Suffolk from Flanders. 

19. received at the Toiuer. This was, according to the old Chronicle, 
about the end of March, 1505-6. 

24. Golden Fleece. The order of the Golden Fleece was instituted 
by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, in 1429. The King of Spain as 
duke of Burgundy became Grand Master of the Order. 

P. 206, line 3. i7t the treaty of undecimo, i.e. in i\\Q intercursns tnag-^ 
mis granted in the eleventh year of the King. 

II. the school-house. Dean Colet's school was established in 15 12 
between the end of Henry Vllth's reign and Bacon's time. 

21. deceased. Philip died 25 Sept. 1526. 

32. fell distracted. She is reported to have shewn signs of insanity 
before this time. 

P. 207, line 2. the felicity of Charles the eighth, in his conquest of 
Naples. 

7. Pope Julius, i. e. Julius II who occupied the pontifical throne 
from 1503 to I513. 

8. his famoiis prediction, mentioned afterwards in the text, p. 220, 
1. 31. He is said to have foretold that Henry of Richmond would be 



298 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

King of England at a time when such a statement seemed most impro- 
bable. 

12. yulins was too dear. Against this notion, see Hook's Lives of 
the Archbishops (ist series, Vol. v. p. 460), where it is shewn that Henry 
Vn did actually pay the sum required ( 1 500 ducats) for the canonization 
of Anselm, and such sum he would not have spared to accomplish his 
end if money could have done it. 

2 ?. Lady Ma7'garet duchess dowager of Savoy. This was the princess 
who in the commencement of Henry's reign had been betrothed to Charles 
Vni of France and called Queen of France. She was sent from the 
court of France where she was being educated, at the time when Charles 
married Anne of Brittany. She was sent to Spain in 1496, and mar- 
ried the duke of Savoy and was now his widow. 

28. Thomas Wolsey, afterwards the famous archbishop of York. 

P. 208, line 4. a little of the xvheel, i.e. to experience a change of 
fortune. 

12. the government of Castilia. Dr Lingard says that, after the 
death of Philip, Maximilian urged Henry to make this claim. 

P. 209, line 12. the Savoy. Henry VH rebuilt this palace which 
had first been the residence of Peter duke of Savoy under Eleanor queen 
of Henry HI. Henry VH made it a charitable foundation, and by his 
will left an endowment for a master and four chaplains. Over the gate 
were these lines, 

*' King Henry the seventh to his merit and honour 
This hospital founded poor people to succour." 

25. Sir William Capel. See before p. 128. 

33. ICnesworth. Thomas Kneesworth was one of the sheriffs of 
London in 1495 and mayor in 1505. 

P. 210, line 6. Sir Lawrence Ailmer. He was sheriff in 1501. 

10. Empson was comfnitted in his place. On the accession of 
Henry VHI. 

22. was perfected. Dec. 17, 1508. 

P. 211, line II. a general pardon, a boon bestowed by Kings at 
the time of their coronation. 

22. 1508. This should be 1509, but is thus printed in Speed and 
in the edition of 1622. Henry completed his twenty-third year on 
2ist Aug. 1508 and died 22nd April, 1509. 

P. 214, line 3. to discharge, &^c. i.e. to take the blame away from 
their princes, even though they lay it unfairly upon others. 

13. sought to purge, e.g. by the execution of Empson and 
Dudley. 

P. 215, line II. Hastings. William, Lord Hastings of Ashby de 
la Zouch, executed by Richard HL 

12. Charles Brandon, afterwards duke of Suffolk and husband of 
Mary, Henry VHth's younger daughter. 

P. 216, line 28. to give them credence, to cause people to believe 
them to be his real enemies as Henry did by having them cursed. See 
text, p. 116, 1. 15. 



NOTES. 299 

P. 217, line 13. till himself were declared, till he had made his own 
intention known. 

27. Hiissey. Sir William Hussey was chief justice of the King's 
Bench. (See Gairdner's Letters, &c. I. 67.) 

Froiuick, one of the King's Serjeants at law. 

P. 219, line 2. Cardinal Adrian, i.e. Adrian de Castello. See 
note on p. 68, 1. ri. 

P. 220, line 15. tres viagi, i.e. the three wise men. 

14. long of , i. e. owing to. This expression is not common, but see 
Shaksp. Cymb. V. 5. 271, 

" O, she was naught : and long ofher it was 
That we meet here so strangely." 

P. 221, line 6. daintiest inommients. Henry Vllth's chapel will still 
bear the praise which Bacon here gives to it. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



p. 226, on note xV ^'^d P- ^^8, on note |^. In order that the 
unpopularity with which the name of Richard III. was regarded may 
be understood, it should be mentioned in addition to what is here 
stated, that towards the end of his reign he found himself compelled 
to revive "Benevolences" though not in the same form as had been 
customary. 

The Croyland Chronicler of his reign tells us that this took 
place in 1485. The words are "Ad regis Edwardi exactiones, quas 
in pleno parliamento damnavit, benevolentiae tamen vocabulum modis 
omnibus aspernatus, se convertit." That is he asked for the money, 
but did not call it by the old name. He styled it a loan. 

The form in which the demands were made ran thus : 
By the King, 

Trusty and Wellbeloved, we greet you well. And for such great 
and excessive costs and charges as we hastily must bear and sustain, 
as well for the keeping of the sea, as otherwise for the defence of 
this our realm, we desire and in our heartiest wise pray you to send 
unto us by way of loan by our trusty servant this bearer [ ] 1. 

And we promise you by these our letters, signed with our own hand 
truly to recontent you, one moiety thereof at Martilmas next coming 
and the residue at the feast of St John the Baptist then next following 
without further delay, assuring you that, accomplishing this our in- 
stant desire and hearty prayer, ye shall find us your good and gracious 
sovereign lord, in any your reasonable desires hereafter: giving further 
credence to our said servant in such things as he shall move unto you 
on our behalf touching the said matter. Given &c. 

* Here a blank was left for the name. 



300 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

The bearers of these letters were furnished with a "remembrance" 
of the sort of language they were to employ to move men to comply 
with the King's request ; thus : 

"Sir, The King's Grace greeteth you well and desireth and heartily 
prayeth that by way of loan ye will let him have such sum as his 
Grace hath written to you for ; and ye shall truly have it again at 
such days as he hath shewed and promised to you in his letters. And 
this he desireth to be employed for the defence and surety of his 
royal person, and the weal of this his realm. And for that intent 
his Grace and all his lords, thinking that every true Englishman will 
help him in this behalf, of which number his Grace reputeih and 
taketh you for one ; and that is the cause he this writeth to you before 
other, for the great love confidence and substance that his Grace 
hath and knoweth in you, which trusteth undoubtedly that ye, like 
a loving subject, will at this time accomplish this his desire." 

The sum asked for was written in the corner of each letter and 
varied from ;!^300 to ^^40. It is supposed that between February and 
April there was collected in this way ^i^aoooo, a large sum at that 
time. But this new mode of levying contributions had such a likeness 
in all but name to the old, that in the disturbed state of the times, 
it became the cause of great odium. The promise of repayment was 
but lightly regarded. 

P. 229, on p. -3^. This Sir Robert was the founder of the existing 
family of Willoughby de Broke. He was succeeded by his son Robert 
(as the 2nd Baron) who died without male issue in 1521. But a 
granddaughter of his, named Elizabeth, married Sir Fulke Greville. 
The title remained dormant till 1695, when it was granted to Sir 
Richard Verney, a grandson of Margaret Verney, who was a grand- 
daughter of Elizabeth Greville. 

The favour in which Sir Robert Willoughby was held by Henry 
Vn. is well seen in the "Materials for the History of Henry VII." 
published in the Rolls Series. At the opening of the reign he is 
sent to bring Edward, Earl of Warwick, from Yorkshire, he is made 
steward of all manner of mines in the counties of Devonshire and 
Cornwall, and is appointed receiver of the Duchy of Cornwall, has 
granted to him leases of manors here and there with the wardships, 
marriages, x-eliefs &c. during the minority of the heirs, is made lieutenant 
of the forest of Bradon, in Wiltshire, receives a grant of the lands 
forfeited by Lord Zouche. 

He had also been entrusted with all the "empcions and provisions 
of stuff" for the King's coronation, and is shewn as one whom the 
King specially delighted to honour. 

Occasion may be here taken to direct attention to these volumes 
which contain much matter illustrative of every part of this history. 

P. 243, on -f^. For the nature of the privileges of the Clergy at 
this time "the reader may with advantage consult such documents as 
the Charter of King Edward IV. of 1462 (see Wilkins Concilia, III. 
p. 583). It is entitled "Charta de libertatibus clericorum, et ne ipsi 
clerici per laicos arrestentur, aut in aliquo per breve 'Praemunire 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 301 

facias' vexentur, et quod decimam de grossis arboribus libera exigere 
valeant." The language is of the most large kind and the Charter 
was evidently intended to purchase the support of the Church and her 
revenues, for the King who granted it. 

A confirmation of the same Charter was made in 1483 by Richard 
III., doubtless with the same intention (Wilkins, III. 616). A com- 
plaint of the neglect of some of these privileges of the clergy was 
directed in 1485 to Henry VII. by Pope Innocent VIII. and is 
recorded in Wilkins (ill. 617), and shews how this "paring of the 
privilege of the clergy" which Bacon speaks of p. 64, 13 would be 
resented by the papal authority. 

The Pope's language is very forcible. After some laudatory words 
of introduction he beseeches the King to give all his labour, diligence 
and authority to stop some offences towards God which have lately 
been committed. For the Pope has heard with sorrow that some 
priests have been arrested {capii), not by their bishops, or by those 
who have in other ways jurisdiction over them, and without examination 
have been, by secular judges, contrary to all divine law {fas), to all 
decrees of the holy Fathers, to all the constitutions of the Popes and 
councils, sometimes tortured, sometimes most cruelly wounded, and in 
some cases hanged. Now they ought to have been tried by ecclesias- 
tical judges, and then if found guilty to have been delivered over to the 
secular power. The Pope has heard too that Cathedrals and Bishops 
have been plundered of their property. Therefore he can use no soft 
words {vei-ha palpantia et adulatoria) in writing to the King. For 
it is written by the prophet, "His blood will I require at thy hand, 
saith the Lord." 

P. 245 on p. -V-- In the notice of De Vere, his presence at and escape 
from the battle of Barnet-field (1471) ought to be mentioned. The 
imaginary adventures of himself and his son, during the period of their 
exile, form the subject of Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein. 

P. 261, on p. V"' Ii^ explanation of common recovery and the Statute 
of Fines, Hallam goes back to the statute de donis conditionalibtis of 
Edward I., the operation of which these legal fictions were intended 
to defeat. King Edward's statute enacted that "lands given to a naan 
and the heirs of his body, with remainder to other persons, or reversion 
to the donor, could not be alienated by the possessor for the time being, 
either from his own issue or from those who were to succeed them." 

Now the judges very early lent their aid to the tenant in tail who 
was anxious to alienate. The most popular form of relief was the 
application to estates tail the fiction of common recoveries. Thus 
the operation of the statutes of mortmain had already been eluded. 
A common recovery is in form an action at law, and in reality a mode 
of conveyance. It may be explained thus. The party purchasing 
pretended to be entitled to the lands in question, sued out his writ 
against the seller, who came into court, and instead of defending his 
title, called upon some person, who it was feigned had originally 
warranted the title to him, to appear and defend the title attacked, 
or to give him land of equal value. On this the person (usually named 



302 HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 

the vouchee) appeared to the action, and the demandant intreated the 
permission of the court for a private conference with the grantee, 
which was never denied. Shortly after the demandant returned into 
court, and the vouchee disappeared, on which the court presuming 
the title of the demandant good gave judgement in his favour. 

The case in which it was finally decided that such a recovery was 
good against the issue was that of Taltarum (12 Edward IV.). This 
case is said to have been brought on the stage by the King, to obtain, 
as was actually done, a solemn decision affirming the efficacy of common 
recoveries. He appears to have desired to destroy the power of the 
overgrown feudatories whose vast possessions and wealth, in these 
times of disturbance, threatened the stability of the throne. 

The Statute of Fines, in Henry VHth's reign, was a further step 
in the same direction, adapting the ancient system of fines to the 
same purpose as recoveries, viz. the breaking up of entail. 

P. 295 on W^. Perhaps in the passage of the text Pluto may mean 
"death" and not "wealth." Such an explanation would fulfil the con- 
ditions of the text very well. 



303 



GLOSSARY. 



able, effective, sufficient to produce 
a result, 7, 1 3 

abolition, used to signify the for- 
giving and forgetting injuries, 

75. 13 
abuse {to), to deceive, to mislead, 

138, 30 
account {to put anything to), to 
take account or notice of, 145, 

33 
acquest, an acquisition or gain; 

used of increase of territories, 

90, 8 : 172, 22 
addtdce, to render palatable, 84, 

14 

advance {to), to put into a position 
of advantage, 135, 4 

advancement, the maintenance of 
the dignity of a royal person- 
age, money allowed for such 
maintenance, 187, 15, 19: 189, 

advertised, instructed, informed, 
46, 25 

advowtry, adultery, 89, 3 

affect {to), to shew liking for, 97, 
28 

a/?^r= afterwards, 207, 28 

alchemy, the transmutation of me- 
tals. Here used figuratively of 
the training given to Warbeck, 
186, 8 

Allhallozvs-day, All Saints' day, 
I St November, i'2i, 7 

amoi-tise, to make over, transfer, 
71, 28 

anatomy, a skeleton, a dissected 
model, 116, 1 8 



ancient, used of a person, old, 

200, 10 
anjiual, annual payment, 102, 22 
answerable, corresponding, accord- 
ing with, 158, 14 
answered, of a money payipent, 

securely guaranteed, regularly 

paid, 200, 16 
appalenient, a rendering pallid 

through fright, 37, 17 
appeached, accused, implicated in 

an accusation, 171, 5 
apposite, suitable, satisfactory, to 

the point, 11 r, 22 
ar7ns, armorial bearing, a coat of 

arms, 99, 2 
articulate, pointed, particular, clear, 

distinct, 216, 19 
artificially, artfully, pretendedly, 

II, 31 : 92, 18 
assigned, appointed, directed, lOi, 3 
assured, pledged, faithfully bound, 

94> 31 

attemper {to), to modify, soften, 
tone down, 18, 6 : 151, 28 

attentates, attempts, 86, 2 

avails, value produced by any- 
thing, the worth of anything, 94, 

avoid {to), to depart from (a coun- 
try), 146, 31 

babies, dolls, 145, 30 

ball, the orb in the hand of a 
monarch as an emblem of sove- 
reignty, 136, 29 

bannerets, knights created under 
the royal banner, 13, 17 



304 



GLOSSARY. 



base, base-born, illegitimate, 109, 

6 
bastarded, declared illegitimate, 29, 

15 

bead-roll, a prayer-list, register of 
persons to be prayed for, or 
(here) cursed, 116, 16 

beat {to), to sift thoroughly, in- 
quire into, 209, 27 

best'be-trust, exceedingly trusted, 
in whom most confidence is 
placed, 115, 32 

better, used to express the excess 
over any number ; as ' and bet- 
ter,' 93, 7 

bid battle {to), to offer battle, to 
challenge to combat, 150, 30 

blanch {to), lit. to make white, 
hence to render less serious, to 
lighten, to take the terror from, 

blooded, mixed in fatal warfare, 
stained with each other's blood, 

77, 6 
bloods, persons of courage and 

spirit, 50, 24 
board {to), to assail, attack, used 

primarily of attacking ships, 

115. 29 
boilings in a ferment; used of a 

country in a state of excitement, 

156, 8 
brandle {to), to spoil, to make to 

totter, to overthrow, 155, 4 
bravery, a show or parade, 33, 13 
broach, a spit for roasting meat, 

38,8 
brocage, base, mean practices, 7, 7 
brook {to), to like ; to put up with, 

125, ir 
bruits, noises, rumours, common 

fame, 22, 27: 25, 23: 112, 17 
butchers, applied to the murderers 

of the princes in the tower, 1 14, 4 



cabinet, private, secret, confiden- 
tial 107, 7 
casualties (Lat. casualid), wind- 



falls, accidental gains, 17, 28: 
128, 9 : 197, 22 
catching, in the phrase " a catch- 
ing harvest," means hurried, 
hasty, 158, I 
cauls, a net or covering for the 

head, 195, 33 
caveat, a Latin word meaning let 
him beware, used as an English 
substantive = a caution, 85, 7 
celestial, divine, belonging to a 

saint, 207, 6 
cement {to), reflex., to patch itself 

together, 159, 27 
censorian, belonging to the office 
of a censor, pertaining to moral 
discipline, 62, 17 
ceremony, the religious character 

of any observance, 30, 16 
champaign, flat, level (of coun- 
tries), Lat. campus, 36, 32 
check-roll, an authoritative list, 63, 7 
chievances, more commonly writ- 
ten achievances, meaning trade 
transactions, 64, 30 
churchnian, an ecclesiastic, one 
versed in church controversies, 
47, 18 : 211, 32 : 220, 18 
churlish, obstinate, 166, 30 
churm, probably A.S. cyrm {see 
notes), but not understood by Ba- 
con's translator, who renders it 
by chorus, 1 70, 8 
cincture, compass, enclosure, 121, 

21 
clerks, clergymen, persons claim- 
ing the privilege of clergy, 120, 
27 
close, secret, concealed, 24, 32 
cockatrice, an imaginary animal 
supposed to have been hatched 
by a cock from the eggs of a 
viper. Ancient belief attributed 
to it the power of killing by a 
glance of the eye, 178, ii 
coffer tip {to), to hoard or store in 

coffers, 51, 33 
cognisances, badges, marks of 
livery, as retainers, 192, 18 



GLOSSARY, 



305 



colourable, of a fair outside, satis- 
factory appearance, but intended 
to conceal, 191, 23, 27 

comfort (Lat. confortare), to give 
material strength and support, 
44, 20 : 127, 18 : 169, 16 

commiserable, intensely miserable, 
179, 2 

commission, an appointment of 
judges, 39, 6 

commodity, advantage, utility, con- 
venience, 36, 27 : 94, 10 : 120, I 

commonplace, a hackneyed topic, 
an ordinary remark, 211, 28 

communicate, to share with others, 
to let others have a share, 103, i 

^(?»z/««?Vz^/^,companionable,friend- 
ly, social, 217, 4 

compense {to), to compensate, to 
balance, 189, 33 

complices, accomplices, 109, T4 : 
126, 2 : 209, 14 

conceit {to), to fancy, to imagine, 
150, 14: 171, 19 

conclave, an assembly, most fre- 
quently of the pope and his 
councillors, 183, 31 

conclude {to), to include, 133, 32 

concurrents, contemporaries, those 
living at the same time, 220, 6 

conditional (n.), the use of condi- 
tional language, or the language 
of supposition, 123, 25, 26 

conditions, arrangements, employ- 
ments ; rank, quality (in a con- 
tract of marriage) , 138, 13: 199, 
II 

confident to ^^ixw^i&fS. by, on whom 
dependence can be placed, 137, 

consort, communion, unity, agree- 
ment, fellowship, 97, 26: 220, 
1 1 

contained, held back, restrained, 

control {to), to check, refute, dis- 
prove, 107, 23 

convent^ to summon or call before 
a court, 191, 7, 33 



convert (adj.), converted, 106, 12 
cordwainer (Fr. cordonnier), a 

worker in leather of Cordova, a 

shoemaker, 177, 15 
corners, squadrons, troops (Lat. 

cornu), 152, 30 
correspondence, an arrangement for 

intercommunication, a means of 

communicating, 31, 24: 113,21 
corroborate {to), to give material 

strength, 202, 17 
cosmography, the description of 

the world, geographical know- 
ledge, 171, 16 
courtesy, sufferance, at his courtesy 

= at his will and pleasure, 112, 

26 
court-fames, rumours of the palace, 

116, 29 
credence {to give), to cause to be 

believed in, 216, 29 



dangerous, to be feared, exposing 
to danger, 122, 33 

dark, underhand, secret, 220, 19 

debonair, agreeable, kindly, court- 
eous, 143, 33 

declared, revealed, of a man whose 
sentiments are disclosed, 217, 13 

defacement, obliteration, forgetful- 
ness of kindness, 55, 12 

defrayed, of persons whose ex- 
penses are paid, 157, 3 

demesnes, lands held by the owner 
for his own vise, 70, 30 

denier^ Lat. dena7-ius, a Roman 
coin of about 10^. in value, but 
used to signify any small coin, 
67, 10: 183, 22 

</^;y, to refuse, 160, 7: 180, 10 

depend upon {to), to be subject 
unto, or at the bidding of, 79, 7 

determine, to come to an end, 102, 
26 

difficile, difficult, unmanageable, 
183, 20 

dilemma, a position in argument, 
where your opponent is involved 



B.H. 



20 



3o6 



GLOSSARY. 



m a difSculty whichever way he 

may reply, 93, 9 
diriges, funeral hymns, 5, 14 
disagreement, refusal, objection, 

78,5 
discharge {lo), to relieve from 

blame, to acquit, 214, 3 
discompose {to), to interfere with, 

to remove from a position, 217, 

33 

discountenancer, a depressor, one 

who strives to keep others down, 
112, 20 

discover (to), to unfold, disclose, 
explain, 104, 24 

discovery, enquiry, espionage, 35, 
II 

disguises^ masks, court entertain- 
ments of a dramatical kind, 219, 
12 

disinherison, the disinheriting, 8, 

19: i5> 17 

disinterest (to), to relieve from ob- 
ligation, 55, 20 

disnies (Fr. disme), tithes, tenth 
parts, a term employed in taxa- 
tion, 142, 27: 143, 5 

dismiss himself (to), to resign vol- 
untarily, 200, 31 

dispeopling, the emptying a country 
of people, 82, 22 

distaste, a dislike, dissatisfaction, 

"5> 7 
distasted 701th, out of love with, 

disliking, 163, 21 

distemper (to), to spoil the charac- 
ter of, to lead wrong, 81, 26 

dorynant, slumbering, ready to be 
waked up, 171, 6 

doubt (to) = to fear, 130, 11 

doubts, fears, 55, 10 

drape {to), to manufacture cloth, 

drapery, the manufacturmg of 

cloth, 73, 27 
drily, meanly, scurvily, 181, 11 
dry, profitless, unproductive, 104, 

7 
ducats^ coins originally issued by 



the Italian dukes. They were 
generally of gold, 102, 19 

edify (to), in the phrase to edify 
with — to produce an effect upon, 

145, I 
embar (to), to put a stop to, for- 
bid, 119, 27 
engage (to), to pledge, pawn or 

mortgage, 103, 14 
engine, a plot or stratagem, 38, 19 
entertain, to cherish, gratify, please, 

181, 32 
entertainment {a countenance of), 

manners of society, a company 

face, 204, 5 
entire (n.), entirety, 143, 26 
entire, trustworthy, faithful, 220, 8 
escuage, a tax or feudal duty paid 

in lieu of military service, 148, 

32 
espials, spies, 105, 12: 100, 32: 

116, 14, 17 
evading, escaping, getting clear of, 

^19. ^3 
evangile, good news, a pledge of 

peace, end of all litigation, 

134, 22 
exasperate, embittered, exasperated, 

77, 3 
exhibition, maintenance, support, 

as the term is now used in 

schools and colleges, 200, 2 1 
expect (to), to wait for, 64, i : 108, 

24: 138, 18 
expedite (adj.)» prepared for the 

march (of troops), 166, 9 
expedited, issued, sent forth, 200, 

extraordinary (adv.), extraordina- 
rily, 158, II 

extreme (adv.), exceedingly, very, 
202, 28 

eye {to), to have regard unto, 54, 
27 

fact, act, deed, 50, 29: 105, 4 
fancy (to), to have a liking for, lo 
think well of, 154, 14 



GLOSSARY, 



307 



fast, secure, well-guarded, 157, 30 
fasthanded, grasping, niggardly, 

188, 14 
fatal, fated, inevitable, 148, 5: 

177, 14: 208, 2 
favour, good looks, 105, 20 : 200, 

7. 
felicity, good fortune, success, 35, 

25 
females = mothers, those which 

give birth, 126, 30 
fifteenths, a tax of a fifteenth part 

of all the moveables of any 

person, 147, 25 
fired, exposed to the fire, 166, 29 
flies, a word used of King Henry's 

spies, apparently on account of 

their restless busy character, 

216, 31 
float {in), afloat, overflowing, 128, 

7 
forces, outbreaks of violence, 

mob-riots, 62, 21 
fordone, laid aside, resigned, given 

up, 143. 7 
forepassed, passed over, allowed 

to lapse (of the time for making 

a claim), 70, 6 
fore-slowing, acting in a dilatory 

manner, dawdling, 152, 22 
forth (to lie), to be lying carelessly 

about, 2 J 8, 16 
fortune (to), to chance, to happen 

by accident, 172, 26 
funerals, used, in the plural, of 

one funeral, 190, 1 



gaol (to), to imprison, to put in 
gaol, 196, 27 

gate-vein, the principal vein or 
artery which conveys most blood, 
used here metaphorically of the 
course of trade, 146, 4 

gaze {at a), wonder-struck, 126, 5 

glosses, explanations, interpreta- 
tions, 214, 14 

goal, an object aimed at, or de- 
sired, 199, 16 



gossip, godfather, 106, 1 

grace (to fall into), to become a 

favourite, 68, 17 
greece (Lat. gradus, Romance, grh), 

stairs or steps, 162, 17 
gi'oat, a silver fourpence, 197, 15 

habilitate, legally qualified, 15, 31 
half-couraged, faint-hearted, 155, 

13 

half -face, partial resemblance, 191, 
6 

half pace, the uppermost step be- 
tween the chancel and the choir 
of a church, 98, 3 

hand, signature to a bond, 102, 24 

hand (to bear in), to make believe, 

95. 4 , 

hardly, sparingly, thriftily, 148, 

II 
harebrain, foolish, mad, perhaps 

in allusion to the proverb "as 

mad as a March-hare," 204, 9 
harness, armour, coats of mail, 

i49»3 

head (to run upon a), to gather 

confusedly together, 130, 9 
headship, patronage, favouring, 62, 

27 
hold, prison, confinement, 120, 21 
homager y vassal, feudal subject, 

44, 18: 81, 24 
husband, a man of economy, 59, 5 
husbandry, economy, thrift, 91, 5 



idol, a sham personage or pre- 
tender to any character, as 
opposed to the real person, 
24, 25: 113, 24: 169, 5 
ill, weak, diseased, 208, 29 
impatronise (to), to make oneself 

patron or master, 84, 27 
impoisoner, a poisoner, 6, 8 
import (to), to be of interest to 
(followed by an accusative with- 
out a preposition), 55, 33 
importune, accepting no refusal, 
incessant, 138, 33 



20- 



3o8 



GLOSSARY. 



impound {to), to shut up, enclose, 
confine, 154, 5 

impropriate (to), to appropriate, 
gain for one's own, 17, 9: 216, 
10 

impznssance, want of power, weak- 
ness, 92, 15 

incense, honorary offerings, signs 
of joy, 188, 29 

inchoation, first efforts, commence- 
ment, 62, 22: 92, 6 

incompetent, unfounded, without 
grounds, unsatisfactoiy, 31, i: 
unable to sue in a court of 
justice, as persons not yet of 
full age and others, 70, 8 

indifferent, applying to all alike, 
impartial, 63, 15 

indifferently, impartially, fairly, 

187, 15 
indubitate, undoubted, certain, 

true, 8, 19 
inexpectcd, unexpected, 213, 24 
infattsting, an omen of ill-luck, 

179, 22 
ingenerate, inborn, natural, 6, 17 
inheritress, heiress, 11, 33 
inlawed, under the protection of 

the law, opposite to outlawed, 

16, I 
inn {to), to gather in, as of a 

harvest, 65, 6 
innocents, idiots, fools, 207, 19 
intelligences, informations, 115, 18 
intend {to), \.o 2XKe.ndi to, 70, 18: 

157, 7: 209, 3 
interested, connected with, con- 
cerned with, T94, 12 
interreign, an interregnum, 9, 10 
invasive, partaking of the nature 

of an invasion, 44, 14 
investing, taking possession of, 

occupying, 173, 2 
inviolate, successful, unimpaired, 

unfailing, 212, 25 
inward, intimate, confidential, 1 26, 

I 
inwardness, confidential commu- 
nication, 43, 27 



itinerary, partaking of the cha- 
racter of a progress or legal 
visitation, 39, 3 

joustings, tournaments, tilts, com- 
bats by appointment, 98, 32 

jubile, a time of festivity or re- 
joicing, 183, 2 

kindle {to), to provoke, to enrage, 

king-at-arms, the herald, who 
regulates (among other duties) 
the nature and granting of all 
armorial bearings, 99, 3 

kings, used to signify a king and 
queen, 13, 33 : 98, 11 : loi, 24 

knights-bachelors , a lower order of 
knighthood than knights-ban- 
nerets, 121, 10 

knot, confederacy, united band, 

113. 29 
kno7vledge {to take), to admit, to 
let anything be known, no, 30 

labour {to), to urge strongly, to 
press hard, no, 24 

laics, laymen, 120, 27 

land {to take) — to land, after a 
sea- voyage, loi, 2 

land-lotcpej; a wandering vaga- 
bond, man of unsettled life, 
105, 25 

lay down {to), to put aside, give 
up, 162, 28 

laying down, the giving up or 
laying aside, 149, 5 

leave {to), to cease. 8r, 22 

legiances (more usually spelt alle- 
giances), lawful services, 142, 7 

let {to), to hinder or prevent, 
119, 12 

to fail, cease, leave off, 

159, 15 

levy {to), used of a siege, to raise 

it and depart, 77, 2 
lie {to), to be imprisoned, 209, 9 



GLOSSARY. 



309 



lieger{oiten vfx'iiienleiger or leidger), 
a messenger or ambassador, 199, 
32: 216, 14 

like [to have), to be nearly doing, 
to be in danger of doing a 
thing, 155, 3 

likely, imminent, 142, 30 

litigious, involving legal disputes, 
84, 28 

liver (n.), one who lives, 4, 1 

livery, the distinctive dress of re- 
tainers, 191, 20 

long of , owing to, 220, 14 



make {to) somewhat for, to con- 
tribute to, to help on, 105, 31 

malice (used of a disease), malig- 
nity, 12, 23 

mannerhood, character for manli- 
ness, 71, 26 

manured, manoeuvred, worked, 70, 
26 

marches, border lands, as the Eng- 
lish marches, 76, 6 : signifying 
those parts round Calais which 
ioined close to the French ter- 
ritory. 

master-reach, superior penetration, 
217, 29 

matronal, matronly, womanly, 199, 

mattacina (Ital.), a pantomime, or 
farce, 38, 7 

mean, of middle rank, 201, 15 

means, reason : by means of = by 
reason of, 114, 31 

merchand[to), to traffic, to bargain 
for, 91, 30 

mercurial (n.), a subtle, cunning 
fellow, 104, 19 

minatory, of a threatening cha- 
racter, 73, 6 

minished, diminished, 196, 19 

mint, the coinage of money, regu- 
lations of the coinage, 213, 3 

missives, letters of order, des- 
patches, 36, 15 

mort-pays, wages received for sol- 



diers or sailors who are dead, 
93' 22 

much, in the sense of very quali- 
fying an adjective, 29, 5 

nnirrey, a dark red colour, 112, 2 

natural, naturalized, a settled de- 
nizen, 201, II 

nearness, niggardliness, parsimo- 
ny, 193, 12 

neck {in the) = following close 
upon. Cf at the heels, loi, 23 

nocent, guilty, 194, 13 

noises, rumours, reports, 150, 13 

notorious, conspicuous, for all to 
see, 28, 5 

obnoxious, indebted to, like Lat. 

obnoxius, 43, 6 
occasions, circumstances, purposes, 

exigencies, 202, 30 
occurrentSy occurrences, 68, 27: 

181, 29 
of='v!\, 64, 13 : 159, ir 
offertory, an offering up, 11, 23 
officious, helpful, of good service, 

116, 23 
often (adj.), frequent, 161, 4 : 176, 

31 
old, computed at an ancient valua- 
tion ; so old rent — rents which 
had not been raised from the 
old standard, and which might 
therefore be largely advanced, 

123. 7 
opinion, popular repute, common 

fame, 104, 6 

oppignorated , pledged, given in 
pledge, 91, 31 

orator, ambassador, 162, 9 

ordnance, great guns, chief ar- 
tillery, 21, 6 

out {to be), not to know one's part, 
to be at fault, 104, 21 

over-liver, the longer liver of the 
two, 175, 5 

overmerit, desert so great that no 
reward can repay it, 122, 29 

over-rule {to), to set aside, 124, 8 



3IO 



GLOSSARY. 



overseen, deceived, mistaken, look- 
ing beyond the mark, 163, 17 

over-trading, bringing in too many 
imports, without taking away a 
corresponding quantity of ex- 
ports, 58, 32 

over-7veighed, out-weighed, coun- 
terbalanced, 122, 27 

oyer and terminei', the French 
title of courts of assize, having 
power to hear and decide, 1 78, 5 

pact, agreement, compact, 7, 19 : 

27, 30: 144, 23 
pain, penalty, fine, punishment, 

pale, a term used for the parts 
round Calais, where English 
rule prevailed, 75, 32. The 
word is also used of those parts 
of Ireland where the law of 
England was recognized 

parricides, used to signify any 
murderers, 6, 13 

partakers, partizans, confederates 
38, 30* 76, 16: 109, 14: 120, 

9^ i5i» 7 

particular, a detailed description, 
200, 6 

particulars, some particular per- 
sons, 131, 5 

pmrty, plaintiff in a legal cause, 
213, 6 

passable, tolerable, endurable, 40, 

30 
passages, circumstances which have 
occurred or come to pass, 107, 

15 

/aj««^ (adv.), exceedingly, 181, 8 

pedantical, savouring of the school- 
master, 187, 29 

peregrination, wandering to and 
fro, 107, 27 

perforce, by force, 168, 21 

person, character, 23, 14 

perspective, inquisition, examina- 
tion, looking into, 25, 31 

pesterous, pestiferous, pernicious, 
196, 29 



phthisic, phthisis, consumption, 
209, 2 

piece, a part to play, 207, 27 

pieces, pictures, 4, 7 

pill (to), to peel, strip bare, 149, i 

pilling, peeling, stripping of the 
hair {pilum), or skin {pellis)^ 
142, 17, 27 

place {to take), to prevail, to assert 
itself, 190, 1 4 

{to take no) — io be unsuc- 
cessful, 68, 3 

plausible, used in a good sense, as 
excellent, praiseworthy, 7, 30 

plays, dramas in real life, 178, 13 

plume {to), to pluck off the fea- 
thers, to strip bare, 103, 16 

points, ribbons or laces wherewith 
to tie parts of the dress, 195, 33 

poll (to), lit. to cut the hair, and 
hence, to shear down in any 
way, 148, 33 

pontifical, priestly or papal, 220, 
26 

popular, vulgar, belonging to the 
common people, 90, 10: paying 
court to the mob, hunting after 
popularity, 150, i 

port, carriage, behaviour, expendi- 
ture, 93, 17 

pose, sometimes spelt appose, to 
question, to examine, to puzzle, 

III, 5 

postilled, labelled, docketed, an- 
notated, 193, 3 

posts, messengers, post-haste, 203, 

4 
precedent, previous, going before, 

7, 19 

precept, a legal order or injunc- 
tion, 191, 7 

prejudge (to), to have a prejudice 
against, 8, 17: 2 1 , 30 

premier seisins, a feudal tax for the 
first entry on an inheritance, if 
the heir-at-law were of full age, 
191, i6 

prest, a loan (see notes), 18, 28 

pretorian, like the power of the 



GLOSSARY. 



311 



praetor at Rome, according to 
the rule of equity, 62, 8, 16 
pre7Jent, to anticipate, 166, 17 
principal (n.), chief persons, 52, 

pnvado, a private and confidential 

retainer, 108, 22 
privateness, confidential communi- 
cation, 216, 2 
procedures, the money produced by 

any sale, 64, 32 
progress, a royal journey or tour 
through the land, n, 7: 39, 2, 
4: 128, 23: 130, 31 
property, peculiarity of character, 

77. 20 
providence, foresight, 69, 28 
puissance, might, power, 158, 14 
puissant, mighty, powerful, 151, 13 
punctos, nice observances, precise 

ceremonial, 97, 5 
purchase, gain, emolument, 81, 28 
//// by {to), to deprive of, or ex- 
clude from, 201, 7 
put on, instigated, prompted, 39, 
17 



quail {jto), to depress, cast down, 

126, I 
quarrel {to) = X.o quarrel with, or 

complain against, 173, 14 
questmongers, paid spies, 192, 10 
quiet {to), to set at rest, 70, 19 
quire, chorus, companionship, 97, 

27 
quit {to), to pay for, repay, 135, 2 

rake-hell, a reckless, heedless, pro- 
digal person, perhaps a corrup- 
tion of the Yx. racaille, 165, 27 

rampiers, ramparts, banks of earth 
raised for pirotection, 165, 21 

range {to), to regulate, bring to 
order, 55, 26 

rascal (adj.), rabble, 130, 20 

reach, intention, object in view, 

"9, 33 

ready, in apt condition for: ready 



for assault = in proper state to 

be assaulted, 102, 12 
receit, a place of ambush or lying- 
in- wai:, 154, 20 
reception, recovery, re-taking, 46, i 
reciprocal (n.), something given in 

return, a qtiid pro quo, 205, 23 
reclaim {to), to tame, or make 

manageable, 14, 29 
recover {to), to gain, to win (with 

no sense of previous loss), 155, 2 
redintegrate, restored, renewed, 

42, 9 
refrain {to), (v. act.), to keep in 

check, or put a rein on, 31, 16 : 

190. 13 
regality, royal prerogative, 87, 5 
regiment, rule, government, 5, 2 
religious, bound by religious vows, 

5, i«. 

rehictation, struggling against, op- 
position, 188, 18 

remembrance, a memorandum, r93, 

4 
r envoy {to), to send back again, 

79. 3 

re-purchase {to), to recover, win 
back again, 42, 18 

resiance, residence, place of abode, 
(called a mansion, 147, 7), 119, 
25: 188, 4 

respect — reason, in the phrase, in 
respect of = lay reason of, be- 
cause of, 127, 14 

respective, respectful, shewing re- 
gard, 217, 4 

respects, objects of regard or con- 
sideration, 190, 25 

retainer, an adherent, one who 
forms part of a retinue, 64, 22 

retire (n. ), the withdrawal (used of 
an army), 61, 21 

retract (n. ), a retreat, opportunity 
of withdrawal, 36, 4 

retributioji, recompense, reward, 

^% 19 

rid (of land), worked, cultivated, 

attended to, 70, 28 
robe, used to indicate those who 



312 



GLOSSARY. 



wear the long robes common to 
academic pursuits, hence applied 
to lawyers and clerics, 127, 5 

rode (more usually now spelt raid), 
an inroad, invasion, 145, 5 

rotrndyopen, straightforward, with- 
out ceremony, 67, 26 

roundly, openly, without circum- 
locution, 50, 8: 51, 27; 59, 27: 
174, 13: 208, 8 

rout, a gathering of the rabble, 64, 

rout {to), to assemble in a rabble, 
66, 7 

ruffie {to), to contest, raise a dis- 
turbance, 191, 31 

runagate, a fugitive and vagabond, 
145, 29 

sad (p. part, of the verb set), 
solemn, staid, 179, 26: 218, 8 

sadly, solemnly, persistently, im- 
moveably, 122, 13 

scaladoes, attempts at scaling walls, 
165, 22 

schoolman, one skilled in scholastic 
theology, 185, 20 

seen in {to be), to be skilled in, or 
well acquainted with, 1 7 r , 15 

seigniory, lordship, feudal supe- 
riority, 78, 29 : 79, 6 

set forth (of money), invested, 
189, 17 

sevei'al {ad}.), separate, 209, 20 

severalty {in), separately, (here) for 
separate use, 187, 18 

shore {to), to prop, support, 134, 13 

shut, confined, kept close, 126, 26 

shut up {to), to bring to an end, 
conclude, 187, 8 

silenced, not talked of, 202, 3 

size {to), to bring to one size, to 
regulate the size of, 93, 32 

skeins, short knives or daggers, 
used by Irishmen and High- 
landers, 37, 15 

skill {to), to signify, to be of con- 
sequence ; it skills not = it mat- 
ters not, 100, 31 



skill {to), to know how to do, to 
understand, 196, i 

spials = espials, spies, informers, 
216, 22, 27 

squibs, showy projects, flashy, 
boastful designs, 195, 3 

staddles, close growths of young 
trees left uncut, 72, 12 

standard, the fixed gauge of weights 
and measures, 93, 30 

state {to), to treat with ceremony 
of state, 77, 19 

state {to keep), to wear a stately or 
courtly manner, 11, 19: 107,8: 
146, 5 : 215, 17 

stay (n.), temperance, steadiness, 
self-control, 17, 5 

stellionate, unlawfully depriving a 
merchant of his money, wares 
or bargain ; fraudulent mer- 
chanting, 62, 22 

stick {to), to hesitate, to have 
scruples at, 103, 15 

still, constantly, 96, 6 

stoop {to), (of a hawk), to descend 
upon its prey, 206, 12 

stout = stout-hearted, courageous, 
164, 26: 178, 15 

stout (adv.), courageously, spirit- 
edly, 55, 27 

strangeness, an affectation of dis- 
tance, and superiority, 215, 23 

suddenly, used in the simple sense 
of soon, quickly, 144, 28 

sufficiency, capability, mental 
power, judgment, 185, 16 

sugared (of language), made pa- 
latable, sweet, acceptable, 84, 

siumnarily , in a brief short form, 
74, 12 

surcharge {to), to impute to an- 
other what does not belong to 
him, 177, 10 

sure (interj.), surely, 192, 23 

sure {to work), to leave no chance 
for slips or failures, 123, 11 

surmise {to), to deem, judge, 
suggest, 138, 29 



GLOSSARY. 



313 



take {to), to make progress, to 

advance, 208, 32 : to succeed, 

to prosper, 61,-27 
take on, to continue, used of a 

journey, 87, 32 
tall, courageous, spirited, 157, 

26 
tallages, tolls, taxes, 142, 28 : 

i43» 5: 201, 22 
temper, degree, influence, amount, 

189, 32 : temperature, 13, 5 
tenances, tenancies, occupations of 

land, 70, 28 
texture, anything woven, 195, 32 
therefore, on that account, Lat. 

propterea, 57. 3° • 1 33. 7 
thread {by the) = one at a time, 

like beads on a string, 126, 10 
toil, mesh, net, entanglement, 153, 

2 
tokens, symbols of clanship, or 

retainership, badges, 58, 7 
tourney, tournament, jousting, tilt- 
ing, 98, 32 
towards — coming towards, in a 

threatening wise, 95, 17 
toys, amusements, sports, games, 

187, 28 
tract (of time), length, duration, 

protraction, 194, 33 
trains, underhand schemes, plots, 

6, 21 
translating, transferring, removing, 

119, 26 
t?'averse {to), to offer objection to, 

to plead against, 191, 18 
triplicity, an union of three, a 

triple band, 151, 8 
trow {to), to think, believe, 117, 

23 
tutelage, the right of a guardian 
over his ward, 78, 29 

under-propping, supporting from 

beneath, 134, 13 
under -set, supported, strengthened, 

146, 7 



unrip {to), to undo, tear to pieces, 

160, 13 
unworthy, unsuitable for, improper, 

6, 2 
tip07i, on account of, e.g. to act 

zipoji discontent, 112, 12, 13: 

127, 16 

?//<?« = against, 215, 25 
ure (n.), use, 181, 17 
use {to) = to be wont, 1 30, 8 
utter {to), to express, give utter- 
ance to, 174, 13 

z/a;?/a^i?= advantage. 51, 30: 152, 

12 
varlets, hired menial servants, 176, 

24 
vent (n.), outlet, means of bestowal 

or disposing of, 146, 10 
vent {to), to go forth, 26, 27: 

also, to send forth, disperse, 

90. 30 
voice, to noise abroad, 25, 20 
voiding (n. ), removal, banishment, 

93. 29 
voluntaries, volunteers, 76, 23 
vulgar, commonplace, relating to 

the populace, 132, 28 

weed, garments, clothing, 170, 14 

well-appointed, well-furnished or 
equipped, 136, 15 

well-favoured, good-looking, hand- 
some, 23, 4 

zvhet (p. part.), whetted, incited, 

128, I 

while, the while (as an adv.) = 
meanwhile, 107, 6 

withdrawing-chamber, now called 
drawing-room, a retiring cham- 
ber, 24, 15 

woad, a. plant which is used for 
dyeing blue, 72, 30 

wonderful (adv.), wonderfully, 198, 
18 

wrench, a means of compulsion, 
motive power, 84, 32 



GENERAL INDEX. 



Abergavenny, Lord, influence in 
Kent, 150; arrested, 194 ; fined 
for the number of his retainers, 
293 ; commands at Blackheath, 
283 ; imprisoned for supposed 
favours shown to the Earl of 
Suffolk, «(^.; liberated,?^.; death, 
ib. 

Adrian VI., Pope, prediction of a 
soothsayer regarding his succes- 
sor, 69 

Adrian, Cardinal, persuades Pope 
Julius to hasten the Bull of dis- 
pensation for the marriage of 
Prince Henry and the Lady 
Catharine, 183; denies that 
Henry VH. shared in the money 
collected by Pope Alexander's 
Commissioner in England, ib. 

Aeneas, Henry compares himself 
to, 40, 247 

Agincourt, battle of, 90 

Aguilar, Gonsalvo de, recovers 
Ostia for the Pope, 279 

Ailmer, Sir Lawrence, Mayor of 
London, fined, and committed 
to prison, 210 

Alexander VI., Pope, desires to 
raise troubles in Italy, 87 ; sends 
a nuncio to the Kings of Eng- 
land and France, moving for 
peace, ib. ; on the French con- 
quest of Naples, 131 ; a party to 
the Italian league against Charles 
VIIL, 132, 278; sends conse- 
crated sword and cap to Henry, 
162 ; sanctions payment in lieu of 



attendance at Rome at the year 
of Jubilee, 183, 290; hisinfamous 
reign, 266, 267; promisesCharles 
the investiture of the kingdom of 
Naples, 278 
Alienation, statute concerning the 
mortgaging of lands, &c., with- 
out fines for, 93 

— of land, &c. by women, act 
concerning, 135, 280 

— Fines for, 268 

Almacan, Michael Peter d'. Secre- 
tary of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
201, 295 

Almain, derivation of the name, 

Almains, regiment of, to be des- 
patched to Ireland, 32 

— Service of the, dismissed from 
Bruges, 96 

Alphonso II., King of Naples, 
Henry sends the Order of the 
Garter to, 103; received by him 
with great pomp, 104; his ac- 
cession to the kingdom, 270 ; 
abdication and flight to Sicily, 
278 ; death, ib. 
America, discovery of, 171 
Angeovines, faction of the, 131 
Angouleme, Francis of, report 
concerning a marriage with the 
daughter of the king of France, 
201, 295 
Anjou, Henry's claim to, 86; for- 
mer possession of the kingdom 
of Naples by the house of, 
279 



3i6 



INDEX. 



Anne, daughter of Edward IV., 
married to Thomas Howard, 
Duke of Norfolk, 280 

Anne, Duchess of Brittany, promise 
of marriage with, how given, by 
Henry VII., 11, 12; Henry en- 
courages MaximiHan to proceed 
with his design of marrying her, 
74, 77 ; the marriage performed 
by proxy, 77, 263 ; married to 
Charles VIII. of France, 11, 12, 
88, 255, 267 ; the second wife 
of Lewis XII., 255 

Anselm, St, canonization of, 298 

Antwerp, vessels for, robbed by 
Lord Ravenstein and his con- 
federates, 94 

Aragon, line of, 82 

Archers, fifty, instituted for the 
security of the King, 14 

Arras, peace of, 233 

Arthur, King; 24, 241 

Arthur, Prince, birth of, 21 ; mar- 
riage with Catharine of Aragon, 
186, 189, 261; details preceding 
the marriage, ib. ; compared 
with Arcturus, 187 ; death, 188, 
291 

Artois, Louis XL sends forces to 
occupy, 253 

Arundel, Thomas Earl of, in the 
army drawn up for the invasion 
of P>ance, 100 ; despatched by 
Henry to visit Philip, King of 
Castile, at Weymouth, 203 ; 
marries a daughter of Lord 
Rivers, 269 ; serves in Flanders, 
297 

Astley, one of Warbeck's Council, 
163 

Astwood, Thomas, apprehension 
of, 120; pardon, ib.', one of 
Waibeck's keepers in the Tower, 
176 

Atlantis, Plato on the, 172, 286, 
287 

Attainder, bills of, 234 

Attainders, 14—17 ; reversal of, 14, 
15 



Attaint, act concerning, upon a 
false verdict, 134, 135, 280 

Audley, Lord, accepted by the 
Cornish rebels as their general, 
149, 150 ; taken at the battle of 
Blackheath, 155 ; an adherent 
of Warbeck, 283; beheaded on 
Tower Hill, 156 

Averroes, Arabian writer on medi- 
cine, 83, 266 

Awater, John, Mayor of Cork, 
executed with Warbeck, 178, 
289 

Ayala, Peter d', see under Hialas, 
Peter 

Ay ton Castle, capture of, by the 
Earl of Surrey, 158 

Bacon, Francis, created Viscount 
St Alban, 224; condemnation, 
ib.', remission of his sentence by 
James I., ib. 

Bajazet II., Emperor of the Turks, 
83, ^65 

Bannerets created after the battle 
of Blackheath, 155 

Barbadico, Augustino, Duke of 
Venice, 132 ; doge of Venice, 
279 

Barley, William, sails into Flan- 
ders for information about the 
supposed Duke of York, 113; 
one of the last supporters of 
Warbeck, 126; receives promise 
of pardon for the betrayal of 
Warbeck, 273 ; pardoned, 277 

Barry, William Lord, attainted of 
high treason, 271 

Barton, Elizabeth, the holy maid 
of Kent, 123, 124; executed, 
276 ; where to find her history, 
ib. 

Bath, knights of the, 121, 275 

Beacons upon the coasts, watch- 
ing of, 135, 280 

Beaton, the mill at, where James 
III. of Scotland was killed, 68, 

259 
Beaufort Castle, 224 



INDEX. 



317 



Bedford, Jasper, Duke of, at the 
head of the army opposed to 
Lord Lovel, 20, 21; submission 
of the hostile army to the Duke, 
2 1 ; leader of the army against 
the false Plantagenet, 34, 35 ; 
General in the army against 
France, 100; sickness and death, 

154 

Bedford, Duchess of, visited by 
Edward IV., 244 

"Benedictus" sung by the slaves 
of the Moors after the conquest 
of Granada, 97, 269 

Benevolence Tax, the, 92, 93, 
134, 197 ; this tax devised by 
Edward IV., 92, 93; abolished 
by Richard III., 93, 226; statu- 
tory recognition of the, 280 

Bermondsey, Elizabeth the Queen 
Dowager confined in the nun- 
nery of, 24, 27, 28, 243 ; dies 
there, 29 

Bethlehem, house of, Warbeck 
takes refuge in, 175, 287 

Bevers, Lord, a commissioner con- 
cerning intercourse between 
Flanders and England, 146 ; 
lieutenant and governor-general 
of Artois, 282 

Bewley in the New Forest, War- 
beck's flight to, 167, 286; takes 
sanctuary there, 167 

Blackheath, Henry's leniency after 
the rebellion of, 213 j the Corn- 
ish rebels at, 150, 152 ; battle 

of> I54» 155 
Blewet, one of Warbeck's keepers 

in the Tower, 176 
Bodmin, Warbeck at, 163 
Bohemians urged by Pope J^^lius 

to make war upon Thracia, 184 
Bons-Hommes of the Trinity, The 

religious order called, 264 
Borderland feuds, 281, 282 
Borgia, Caesar, hostage from Pope 

Alexander to Charles VIII. , 278 
Borgia's bark, 267 
Bosworth Field, battle of, 5 



Boulogne, Henry VII. at, 96 ; the 
army for the invasion of France 
removes to, 102; siege of, 102 

Bourchier, Sir John, redemption 
of, by Henry, 18, 237 ; distin- 
guishes himself in the Cornish 
rebellion, 237; made lieutenant 
of Calais, ib.; translates Frois- 
sart's Chronicle, 237; death, ib. 

Bourchier, Thomas, Abp. of Can- 
terbury and Cardinal, Henry 
VII. dines with, 13; Richard 
III. and Henry VII. crowned 
by, 232 ; a benefactor to Ely 
Cathedral and the Universities, 
ib. 

Bourges, Duke of Orleans, a pri- 
soner at, 255 ; 

Bourn Monastery, the Lady Mar- ;■ 
garet a benefactress to, 225 

Brabant, vessels for, robbed by 
Lord Ravenstein, 94 

Brackenbury, lieutenant of the 
Tower, and the murder of the 
Duke of York, 114,273 

Brampton, Lady, accompanies 
Warbeck to Portugal, 108 

Brandon, Charles, see under Suf- 
folk, Duke of 

Bray, Sir Reginald, sent by Henry 
to the Lord Mayor respecting a 
loan, 18, 237 ; mentioned by 
Warbeck as being in favour with 
the King, 1 42 ; designs of the 
Cornish rebels against, 149, 150; 
Henry's avarice imputed to, 214; 
death, 190, 237 

Bray brook, James, sent on a com- 
mission concerning the Queen 
of Naples, and afterwards to the 
court of Ferdinand, 199, 295 ; 
payments to, 295 

Bretay, Thomas, Sheriff of Lon- 
don, 231 

Brittany, Duke of, see under Fran- 
cis, Duke of Brittany 

Brittany, Duchy of, Charles VIIL 
desires the re-annexation of, 42, 
43 ; communications between 



3i8 



INDEX. 



the Kings of England and France 
concerning the Duchy, 49 ; de- 
feat of the Britons at the battle 
of St Alban, 60, 61; speech of 
Charles's Commissioners con- 
cerning the war in, 80, 81 ; pos- 
session of insured to Charles, 
103 ; invaded by the French, 

255 

Brook, Lord, see under Willough- 
by, Sir Robert 

Broughton, Sir Thomas, conceals 
Lord Lovel, 21; his influence 
in Lancashire, 31 ; arranges 
means of communication with 
the Earl of Lincoln, ib.; with 
the rebel forces, 35, 240; slain 
at the battle of Stoke, 37 

Bruges in arms against Maximilian, 
75 ; renders assistance to Lord 
Ravenstein in the taking of 
Sluice, 94; the Duke of Saxony 
at, 94, 95 ; blocked by the tak- 
ing of the town of Dam, 95 ; 
the inhabitants submit to Maxi- 
milian, 96 

Buckingham, Edward Duke of, 
his dignities and possessions re- 
stored by Henry, 18 ; hastens 
with an army to Exeter, 1 66 ; 
attainted and executed, 235 ; 
table showing his close relation- 
ship to Edward IIL and Henry 

vn.. 236 

Buckingham, Henry Duke of, re- 
volt against Richard HL, 227, 
228 

Burgundy, Duchy of, allied to 
England, 56, 253 ; strength of, 
90; Louis XL sends forces to 
take possession of, 253 ; he is 
recognized as sovereign of, 
tb. 

Bury St Edmund's, arrival of 
Henry at, 34 

Butler, supremacy of the family in 
Kilkenny, 244 

Bye-laws, statute concerning, 196, 
294 



Cabot, Sebastian, discoveries of, 
171, 172, 286; death, ib. 

Calais, Garrison of, 76 ; by-word 
of Charles VHL respecting, 77 ; 
meeting of the English ambas- 
sadors with Lionel, Bp. of Con- 
cordia at, 87 ; the army for the 
French invasion to winter at, 
100, loi ; Henry at, loi, 103, 
180 

Cambridge, visit of Henry VH. 
to, 245 

Capel, Sir William, compounds 
with the King, 1 28 ; prosecuted, 
128, 209, 277 ; conveyed to the 
Tower, 209 ; pardoned, 277 

Capital offences, 62-64 

Caramania, King of, assists Gemes 
in his revolution against his 
brother Bajazet IL, Emperor of 
the Turks, 265 

Carew, Sir John, at Weymouth, 
203, 297 

Carews, the, hasten with troops 
to Exeter, 166 ; notice of, 
285 

Castello, Adrian de, the Pope's 
ambassador to mediate between 
the King of Scotland and the 
rebels, 68 ; his preferments, 68, 
260 ; conspires with others 
against the life of Pope Leo, 
68, 69 ; deposed by him, 260 ; 
his supposed murder, ib. 

Castile, Maximilian urges Henry 
to lay claim to the government 
of, 298 

Catesby, William, Esquire of the 
body of Richard III., 234 ; at- 
tainder, 17 ; execution, 235 

Catharine of Aragon, birth, 291 ; 
compared with Hesperus, 187; 
arrival at Plymouth, 186; mar- 
ried to Prince Arthur, i8f>, 187, 
291 ; details preceding the mar- 
riage, 291 ; marriage portion 
and settlement, 187 

Catharine, Lady, daughter of Ed- 
ward IV., marriage with William 



INDEX. 



319 



Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, 
194, 280 

Cecilia, daughter of Edward IV., 
married to John Lord Wells, 
280 

Censor, office of, 62, 257 

Chamber, John a, at the head of 
the Northern subsidy rioters, (i()\ 
captured ib.\ executed in great 
state at York, ib. 

Chandos, Lord, created Earl of 
Bath, 18, 235 

Chancery, court of, 62, 257 

Charles, Prince, afterwards Charles 
L, Bacon dedicates his book to, 
3. 4. 223 

Charles VIIL, King of France, 
anxious to acquire the Duchy of 
Britain, 42, 43; resolves to make 
war upon it, 43 ; sends ambas- 
sage to Henry, 43-45 ; betrothed 
to the daughter of Maximilian, 
45» 78) 233 ; receives Henry's 
ambassador craftily, 47 ; con- 
sents to Henry's arbitration, ib.\ 
invades Britain, 49 ; besieges 
Nantes, ib. ; sends Bernard 
D'Aubigny to Henry, 50 ; as- 
sists Henry in the recovery of 
his kingdom, 55, 252 ; Henry 
sends fresh ambassadors to, 60 ; 
enmity between him and Henry, 
77 ; sends an ambassage to 
Henry to treat for peace, and 
concerning the marriage of the 
Duchess of Britain, 78, 79 ; 
speech of the ambassadors, 79- 
84 ; intends transporting forces 
into Graecia, 82 ; designs the 
overthrow of the Ottoman em- 
pire, 82 ; claims the guardian- 
ship of the Duchess of Britain, 
255; marries her, 88, 255, 267; 
objections to this marriage, 263 ; 
makes overtures of peace to 
Henry, 10 1 ; restores Russignon 
and Perpignian to Spain, ib. ; 
peace with Henry, 102 ; secures 
the possession of Britain, 103; 



sends to Warbeck, promising 
him assistance, 109; his recep- 
tion of him, 1 10 ; dismisses him, 
ib. ; seizes Ostia, 131 ; protects 
the liberty of Pisa, ib. ; intends 
to recover the kingdom of 
Naples, 45; his claim thereto, 
249, 264 ; determines to make 
war upon it, 82 ; his conquest 
and loss of Naples, 131, 132, 
278, 297 ; differences with Ludo- 
vico Sfortia, Duke of Milan, 
131, 132; arranges a peace with 
him, 279; Italian league against, 
131, 132, 278; recommends 
Warbeck to the King of Scot- 
land, 136; sends embassage to 
Henry from Calais, 156, 157 ; 
Gemes delivered up to him, 266 ; 
his accession, 47, 249 ; death, 
175, 287 

Charles the Bold, marries Mar- 
garet sister of Edward IV., 253 ; 
slain at the battle of Nancy, ib. 

Charles, Prince of Castile, con- 
cerning his marriage with Mary, 
Henry's second daughter, i8i, 
201, 208, 210, 290; his pro- 
posed marriage with the daugh- 
ter of the King of France to be 
broken off, 201 ; admitted to 
the Order of the Golden Fleece 
by Henry, 205 

Charles the Hardy, of Burgundy, 
marriage of, 32 ; death, 245 

Cheapside, Warbeck in the stocks 
at, 176 

Chester, Earl of, made a Royal 
title by Henry III., 223 

Chester, Richard, Sheriff of Lon- 
don, 231 

Child, Alwinus, the founder of 
Bermondsey nunnery, 243 

Children of Tribute, Turk's com- 
missioners for, 105, 270 

Cholmondeley, Richard, in favour 
with the King, 142 ; guardian of 
the possessions of John Egger- 
ton, 281 



320 



INDEX. 



Chronological table, xvii.-xx. 

City Companies, Reception of 
Henry VII. by the, ii, 231 

Clare, County, Supremacy of the 
O'Briens in, 244 

Clarence, Duke of, Warbeck's 
tale in his confession that the 
Irish said he was the, 109 ; 
married to the eldest daughter 
of the Earl of Warwick, 226 ; 
dispute with Richard III. con- 
cerning the disposal of the wealth 
of the Earl of Warwick, ib, ; 
Richard the supposed contriver 
of the Duke's death, 6, 226 

Clergy, privileges of the, 243, 258, 
289, 294; further notices of, 302, 

303 

— convicted to be branded, 64 

Clifford, Sir Robert, sails into 
Flanders for information about 
the supposed Duke of York, 113; 
is introduced to Warbeck by the 
Duchess of Burgundy, ib.; de- 
clares himself satisfied concern- 
ing his identity with Richard 
Duke of York, ib. ; Henry's en- 
deavour to draw him from the 
side of Warbeck, 116, 273; is 
won over to the King, ib.; 
arrives in England, 121 ; meets 
Henry in the Tower and dis- 
closes his information, ib. ; said 
to have been a spy of Henry's 
in Flanders, 125 ; chamberlain 
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, 273 ; 
the raid of the Scotch into the 
North of England frustrated by 
his treachery, 275 ; pardoned, ib. 

Cloth, statute limiting the price 
of, 73 ; resolutions concerning 
the sale of, 289 

Cobham, John Lord, influence in 
Kent, 150; serves in the expe- 
dition on behalf of Maximilian 
against the French, 283 ; his 
death, ib. 

Colet, Dean, schoolhouse of, 206, 

2Q7 



Colliweston, the Lady Margaret 

conducted thither, on her way 

to Scotland, 189 
Collusion, informations by, 73, 

262 
Colnham, Humphrey and Thomas 

Stafford take sanctuary at, 21, 

241 
Colonna faction, 247 
Columbus, Bartholomseus, voyage 

of, 172 
Columbus, Christopher, discoveries 

of, 171, 172, 286 
Colyngbourne, William, of his 

rhyme concerning Lord Lovel, 

RatclifTe and Catesby, 234 ; 

execution of, ib. 
Commines, Ph. de, envoy of 

Charles VIII. at Venice, 278 
Common Laws, 62, 256 ; as dis- 
tinguished from Statute laws, 

256 
Common Pleas, Court of, 62, 256 
Common Recovery, account of, 

Concordia, Lionel, Bishop of, sent 
by Pope Alexander VI. to medi- 
ate between the Kings of Eng- 
land and France, 87 ; received 
by Henry, 88 ; causes Gemes to 
be delivered up to Pope Inno- 
cent VIIL, 265 

Congressall, Lord, Captain of 
Warbeck's guard at the French 
Court, no, 272 

Corcutus abdicates the Turkish 
throne in favour of his father, 
265 

Cordes, Philip Lord, serves in the 
wars of Charles of Burgundy, 
263 ; sends forces to the assist- 
ance of Lord Ravenstein, 75 ; 
besieges Newport, 76 ; the siege 
raised, 77 ; makes overtures of 
peace to Henry from the French 
King, 10 1 ; the English ambas- 
sadors meet him, 102 

Corffe castle, 281 

Cork, arrival of Warbeck al, 109 



INDEX. 



321 



Cornwall, rebellion in, 148- 150 ; 
Warbeck advised to hasten 
thither, 163 ; he goes, ib. 

Cornwall, Duke of, creation of the 
title, 223 

Cotton, Sir R., the possessor of 
the original proclamation of 
Warbeck on entering Northum- 
berland, 1 40 note 

Countebalt, James, Maximilian's 
ambassador, 99, 269 

Courtney, Edward, created Earl 
of Devon, 13, 233 

Cradock, Sir Matthew, married 
to Lady Catharine Gordon, 280; 
buried in Swansea Church, ib. 

Cressenor, Thomas, 120 

Cressy, battle of, 90 

Croyland Monastery, The Lady 
Margaret a benefactress to, 225 

Curson, Sir Robert, made a spy 
by Henry upon the Duke of 
Suffolk in Flanders, 193, 194; 
returns to England, 194; re- 
ceived with favour by the King, 
ib.', excommunicated, 194,294; 
pardoned, 294; created a Baron 
of the Roman empire, 293; 
documents relating to his com- 
munications with Maximilian 
concerning Edmund de la Pole, 
ib. 

Cutte, John, mentioned by War- 
beck as being in favour with 
the King, 142; pardoned, 281 

Dam, the town of, 94; the means 
by which the Duke of Saxony 
took it, 95 

Darcy, Thomas Lord, appointed a 
commissioner for the fining of 
the rebels, 169; his appoint- 
ments, 286; marches to the re- 
lief of Norham Castle, ib.', sur- 
renders Pontefract Castle to the 
rebels, ib.', beheaded, ib. 

Daubeney, Sir Giles, created Lord 
Daubeney, 18, 235; appoint- 
ments, 76, 10^, 125, 235 ; Henry 

B. H. 



sends him an army of 1000 men 
to aid Maximilian, 76; increased 
from the garrisons of Calais, &c., 
ib.', victory of the English, ib.', 
appointed to negotiate a Treaty 
of Peace with Charles, 102 ; the 
forces under his command are 
detained for the King's service 
against the Cornish rebels, 151— 
154 ; encounter with the rebels, 
1 54 ; sent with a force to Exeter, 
166 

Daubeney, William, keeper of the 
jewels of the "pretensed" King 
Richard, 274; apprehension and 
execution, 120 

D'Aubigny, Bernard, sent by 
Charles VIH. to Henry, con- 
cerning the Duchy of Britain, 

50 

D'Aubigny, Stuart, leads the 
French army into Milan, 290 

David I., King of Scotland, the 
founder of Melrose Abbey, 287 

Deal, Warbeck arrives upon the 
coast of, 129 

Deane, Henry, Prior of Lanthony, 
made Chancellor of Ireland, 
127; translated to Salisbury, 
277; succeeds Morton as Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, 277 

Deptford bridge, the Cornish 
rebels from, are met by Lord 
Daubeney, 154 

Derby, Thomas Earl of, in the 
army drawn up for the invasion 
of France, 100 

Desmond, Earl of, Warbeck ap- 
plies to him for assistance, 109, 
271 

De Vere, Earl of Oxford, 303 

De Vere, Sir R., brother of the 
Earl of Oxford, slain at the 
siege of Sluice, 96 

Devonshire, Edward Earl of, in 
the army for the invasion of 
France, lOo 

Devonshire, William Earl of, 
marries Catharine daughter of 

21 



322 



INDEX. 



Edward IV., 280; hastens with 
troops to Exeter, 166, 285 ; 
taken into custody, 194 

Digby, Sir John, lieutenant of the 
Tower, 176; Warbeck and his 
keepers form a conspiracy to 
murder him, 176, 177; employs 
men to arrest the servants bribed 
by Warbeck to efiect his escape, 
289 

Digby, Simon, payment to, in 
connection with the funeral of 
Sir W. Stanley, 276 

Dighton, John, examined touch- 
ing the murder of the Duke of 
York, 114; Tirrel's horse- 
keeper, 273 

Dixmude, siege of, by the French, 

75» 76 

Dorset, Thomas Marquis of, at- 
tainted by Richard III., 237; 
money sent to Paris by Heniy 
for his redemption, 18, 237 ; 
hastens to the King to clear 
himself, 34; is met on the way 
and conveyed to the Tower, ib, ; 
liberated, 40; in the army for 
the invasion of France, 100 

Drapery, statute concerning, 73 

Drogheda, statute of, called Poyn- 
ings' Law, 268, 277 

Dudley, Edmund, Henry's agent 
in his extortions upon his people, 
190-192, 292 ; the people's 
complaints of his oppressions, 
209 ; Speaker of the House of 
Commons, 195 ; Henry is 
touched with remorse at Dud- 
ley's deeds, 214; execution, 298 

Dutch fishing upon the coasts of 
England, 206 

Edgecombe, Sir Richard, sent to 
James III. of Scotland to con- 
clude a peace, 41 ; grants to, 
248; appointed controller of the 
King's mines in Devon and 
Cornwall, ib. 

Edmmid, third son of Henry VII., 



birth, baptism, and death of, 
175. 287 
Edward I., King of England, his 
wisdom as a lawgiver, 69, 260 ; 
creates his son Edward Prince 
of Wales, 223 
Edward III., King of England, 
creates the Black Prince Duke 
of Cornwall, 223 
Edward IV., King of England, 
Treaty of peace with Lewis XL, 
6, 227; the deviser of the tax 
called a Benevolence, 92 ; said 
to have been the godfather of 
Warbeck, 105, 106, 271; his 
love of pleasure, 226, 227; visits 
the Duchess of Bedford, 244; 
flight, ib.', genealogical table at 
the death of, 229, 230 
Edward V., King of England, 

murder of, 6, 279 
Edward the Black Prince, brings 
John King of France a prisoner 
to England, 267 
Edward Plantagenet, The counter- 
feit, see under Simnel 
Edward Plantagenet, conveyed 
from the Castle of Sheriff Hut- 
ton to the Tower, 9, 10; sinister 
rumours concerning the King's 
intention to put him to death, 22, 
25 ; rumoured escape from the 
Tower, 25 ; ordered to be shown 
to the people, 28; paraded 
through the principal streets of 
London, 29; taken to St Paul's 
in solemn procession, 30 
Egremond, Sir John, leader of 
the Northern Subsidy rioters, 
66 ; flight into Flanders, ib.\ 
grants to, from the lands of 
Francis Lord Lovel, 259 
Elizabeth, widow of Edward IV., 
takes sanctuary at Westminster, 
244; appeals to Edward for the 
reversal of the attainder of her 
husband, 244; her supposed 
connection with the counterfeit 
Plantagenet scheme, 24 ; con- 



INDEX. 



323 



fined in the nunnery at Ber- 
mondsey, 24, 27, 28, 243; 
seizure of her estates, 24, 28; 
her varied fortunes, 28, 29 ; 
death and burial, 29; the foun- 
dress of Queens' College, Cam- 
bridge, 29, 244 

Elizabeth of York, Queen of 
Henry VIL, rumour that 
Richard III. wished to marry 
her, 226; conveyed from the 
Castle of Sheriff Hutton to 
London, 9, 10; proposed mar- 
riage to, by Henry, 10, 11 ; her 
distress at the reports of the 
King's intended marriage with 
Anne, Duchess of Brittany, 12 ; 
her marriage, 19; the King's 
treatment of her, 19, 22; coro- 
nation, 22, 39, 40, 242 ; has no 
influence over the King, 215; 
death, 190, 292 

Ely Place, Serjeants' feast at, 131 

Empson, Richard, mentioned by 
Warbeck as being in favour 
with the King, 142; Attorney- 
General of the Duchy of Lan- 
caster, 281 ; the agent of Henry 
in his extortions, 190—192, 292 ; 
memorandum from one of his 
account-books, 193 ; imprisoned, 
210, 298; Henry is touched with 
remorse at the deeds of, 214; 
executed, 298 

England, armistice with Brittany 
in the time of Richard IIL, 
252 ; Henry stops commerce 
with Flanders, 1 19, 274 ; English 
banished from Flanders, 120; 
treaty with Flanders, 146 ; 
union of England and Scotland, 
223 ; commission appointed to 
enquire into the English pos- 
sessions in France, 281 

Erasmus, his money seized for the 
Royal Exchequer, 235 ; visits 
the shrine of the Virgin at Wal- 
singham, 245 

Escuage, service of, 148, 283 



Essex, Henry Earl of, in the army 
drawn up for the invasion of 
France, roo; leads the King's 
forces against the Cornish rebels, 
152-154, 270 

Estaples, peace of, 102, 270 

Exeter besieged by Warbeck, 164; 
its defence by the inhabitants, 
164, 165; Henry sends troops 
to, 166; the siege raised, 166; 
joyful entry of the King, 168, 
286 

Exchequer, court of, 62, 234, 256, 

257 
Exchequer, statute for the dis- 
persing of the standard of the, 
93, 268 



Faro, Catharine de, the mother of 
Perkin Warbeck, 106 

Ferdinand, King of Spain, Henry 
hopes for the alliance of, 52 ; 
a probable ally of England 
against the French, 90; doubt- 
fulness of this, 91, 92; war 
against the Moors, 91 ; treats 
with France for the restoration 
of Roussillon and Perpignian, 
91; commissioners of enquiry 
despatched by Henry to the 
Court of, 199-201 ; threatens to 
marry again if Philip refuses 
him the government of Castile, 
20 r ; reported design of mar- 
riage with Madame de Fois, 
202, 207 ; Henry favourably 
compared with, 220 

Ferdinand and Isabella, Letters 
from, concerning the final con- 
quest of Granada from the 
Moors, 96, 97, 268, 269; Fer- 
dinand's ostentation after the 
conquest, 97 ; parties to the 
Italian league against Charles 
VIII., 132, 278 

Ferdinand I., King of Naples, 82, 
264 

Ferdinand II,, King of Naples, 

21 2 



324 



INDEX. 



withdraws from Naples, 278 ; 
death, 279 
Ferrers, Lord, attainder of, 17, 

.234 

Fines, statute of, 70, 226, 260, 
261 

First-fruits, 238 

Fisher, John, Bp of Rochester, 
beUef in EUzabeth Barton the 
cause of his fall, 276 

Fitzgerald, Thomas, Lord Deputy 
of Ireland, 26, 244 

Fitzgerald, house of, exercises su- 
premacy in Leinster and Mun- 
ster, 244 

Fitzwalter, Lord, Chief Justice of 
the forests beyond the Trent, 
273; sides with the supposed 
Duke of York, 113; appre- 
hended, 120; proposals to his 
keeper for his escape, 120, 274; 
beheaded, 273 

Flammock, Thomas, a ringleader 
in the Cornish rebellion, 148; 
taken at the battle of Black- 
heath, 155; executed at Tyburn, 
156 

Flanders, The Irish rebels send 
privy messengers into, 30; Earl 
of Lincoln and Lord Lovel in, 
31; rebellion of Maximilian's 
subjects in, 74, 75 ; speech of 
Charles's commissioner concern- 
ing the war in, 81, 82; arrival 
of the Duke of Saxony to settle 
affairs between Maximilian and 
his subjects, 94 ; English trade 
with, stopped, 119, 274; banish- 
ment of the Flemings from 
England, 119; treaty with 
England for a renewal of inter- 
course, 1 46; the Flemings sub- 
jects of Burgundy, 8r, 264 

Foderingham, Cecile Duchess of 
York, mother of Edward IV. 
buried at, 132 

Fois, Madame de, reported de- 
sign of Ferdinand to marry her, 
202, 207, 295 



Fornovo, French victory at, 279 

Forrest, Miles, and the murder of 
the Duke of York, 1 14, 273 

Fouldrey, landing of the rebel 
forces with their pretended King 
at, 35> 245 

Fox, Richard, Bp of Exeter, &c., 
called into the Privy Council of 
the King, 19; preferments, 19, 
238; one of the ambassadors to 
James III. of Scotland, 41 ; 
meets Lord Cordes concerning 
treaty of peace with France, 
102; mentioned by Warbeck as 
being in favour with the King, 
142; one of the commissioners 
for the renewal of intercourse 
between England and Flanders, 
146 ; sends to the Earl of Surrey 
for succour against the King of 
Scotland, 157; fortifies Norham 
Castle, ib.\ treats with the Scotch 
commissioners concerning peace, 
159, 160; sends deprecatory 
letters to the Scottish King with 
regard to the affray at Norham, 
174; goes to the King of Scot- 
land, ib.', they meet at Melrose, 
ib.\ asked by the King to favour 
his marriage with the Lady Mar- 
garet, Henry's daughter, ib.\ 
master of the ceremonies at the 
marriage of Prince Arthur, 186; 
treaty of marriage between 
Charles Prince of Castile, and 
Mary daughter of Henry VII. 
perfected by him at Calais, 210; 
executor to the Lady Margaret, 
238 

France, smallness of the army, 72, 
90; urged by Pope Julius to 
war upon Graecia, 184; titles 
given by the Popes to Kings of, 
264 

Franche-Comte, Louis XI. sends 
forces to take possession of the 

253 
Francis, Duke of Brittany, assists 
Lewis Duke of Orleans, 43, 53; 



INDEX. 



325 



under the influence of the Duke 
of Orleans, 48 ; his affairs direct- 
ed by him, ib.\ Charles VIII. 
makes war upon him, 53 ; Henry 
sends Lord Brook to his assist- 
ance with an army, 60; decay 
of memory, 249, 250; death, 
61, 248, 255 

Francis, Lord of Luxemburg;, an 
ambassador of Charles to Henry 
concerning the marriage of the 
Duchess of Britain, 78, 263 

Frederick III. Emperor of Ger- 
many, wars upon Flanders, 

75 

Friesland, vessels on their way to, 
robbed by Lord Ravenstein and 
his confederates, 94 

Frion, Stephen, Clerk of the 
Signet, &c. , 271, 272; enters 
the service of the French King, 
109; sent by him to Warbeck 
with promises of aid, ib.-, War- 
beck's chief counsellor, no 

Frowick, one of the King's ser- 
jeants-at-law, 299 

Fulfords, the, hasten with troops 
to Exeter, 166, 285 

Gabato, Sebastian, see under Cabot 

Gagvien, Robert, one of the am- 
bassadors sent by Charles to 
Henry to treat for peace, 78, 
79; warned to quit England, 
88, 267 ; his libel against Henry, 
ib.\ in charge of the Royal 
Library at Paris, 264; favourite 
ofCharles VIII. and Lewis XII., 
ib.'y death, ib. 

Galeot, James, French commander, 
slain at the battle of St Aubin, 
60, 255; buried at Angers, 255 

Gaols, statute concerning the Pa- 
tents of, 196, 294 

Garter, order of the, bestowed 
upon Alphonso, Duke of Cala- 
bria, 103; ditto upon King 
Philip, 205 

Garth, mentioned by Warbeck as 



being in favour with the King, 
142 

Gascoigne, regulations concerning 
the importation of wine from, 
72 

Gemes, brother of Bajazet Em- 
peror of the Turks, 83; raises 
an army against his brother, 
265; twice defeated, ib.\ takes 
refuge in Rhodes, ib.; Charles 
desires his assistance in his de- 
signs upon Naples and Grsecia, 
265; delivered up to Pope In- 
nocent VIII., 265, 266; the 
Pope hands him over a prisoner 
to Charles, 266; death, ib. 

Germany, empire of, formerly 
called the Holy Roman Empire, 

233 . 

Ghent in arms against Maximilian, 
75 ; renders assistance to Lord 
Ravenstein in the taking of 
Sluice, 94 

Giraud Torlonia, the palace, 260 

Golden Fleece, Prince Charles of 
Castile admitted to the Order 
of the, 205; institution of the 
Order, 297 

Goldenston, Thomas, Prior of 
Christ Church, Canterbury, one 
of the ambassadors from Henry 
to the King of France, 87; his 
return, 88 

Gordon, Lady Catharine, James 
IV. of Scotland consents to her 
marriage with Warbeck, 140; 
brought before Henry, 167, j68; 
well treated by him, 168; mar- 
ries Sir Mathew Cradock, 280; 
buried at Swansea, ib. 

Grsecia, Charles's intention to 
transport his forces into, 82, 86; 
Pope Julius urges a war upon, 
184 

Granada, conquest of, 83, 97, 268, 
269 ; thanksgiving in St Paul's, 

97. 98 , 
Green, Sir Thomas, arrested, 194, 
293, 294 



326 



INDEX, 



Greenwich, departure of the King 
from, on his way to invade 
France, loo 

Grey, Sir John, the first husband 
of Elizabeth Wydeville, after- 
wards Queen of Edward IV., 
killed at the battle of St Albans, 
227 

Guienne, Henry's claim to, 86 

Guildford, Sir Richard, employ- 
ments under Henry, 131, 277, 
281 

Guines, garrison of, 76 

Haddon, Richard, Sheriff of Lon- 
don, arms the citizens against 
the Cornish rebels, 153, 284; 
knighted, 284 

Hammes castle, 193 ; garrison, 

Hastings, Lord, favourite of 
Edward IV. and Richard III., 
215, 298; executed, 244, 298 

Hawis, alderman of London, 
death of, 210 

Henry III., King of England, be- 
stows the title of Earl of Chester 
on his son Prince Edward, 223 

Henry IV., King of England, in- 
tervals of peace during the reign 
of, 10; intends making an ex- 
pedition into the Holy Land, 
82, 83, 264 

Henry VL, King of England, in- 
tervals of peace during the reign 
of, 10; crowned in f^ ranee, 90, 
267; assisted by the King of 
Scotland, 139, 280; restoration 
of, 244; death, 6; did he die of 
grief or was he murdered by the 
direction of Richard, 226; his 
canonization desired by Henry 
VII., 207; innocency, 220; pro- 
gnostication concerning Henry 
VII., 220, 297, 298 

Henry VII., King of England, 
attainted by Edward IV., 46, 
249; resides in Brittany during 
the reigns of Edward IV. and 



Richard III., 252 ; plot formed 
for his apprehension, 252; takes 
refuge with Charles VIIL, ib.^ 
causes "Te Deum" to be sung 
on Bosworth Field, 5; receives 
assistance from Charles VIIL 
and the Duke of Brittany at 
Bosworth, 46, 249; saluted 
King, ib.\ table showing his 
connection with the House of 
Lancaster, 224; takes an oath 
to marry Elizabeth of York, 
228; titles to the crown, 7-9; 
that on which he rests his 
claim, 9; the crown, worn by 
Richard at Bosworth Field, 
placed upon him by Sir W. 
Stanley, 8; proceeds towards 
London, 10 ; reception on the 
route, 10, II ; his orders con- 
cerning the march, 1 1 ; entry 
and reception, ib.\ goes to St 
Paul's, ib.\ "Te Deum" again 
sung, ib.\ stays at the Bishop's 
Palace, ib. ; artificial design of 
marriage with Anne, Duchess 
of Brittany, 11, 12; his reasons 
for this, 12; proceeds to the 
Tower, where he makes twelve 
knights bannerets, 13; corona- 
tion, 12, 13; the Act concern- 
ing the entailing of the crown 
upon him and his heirs, 15, 
233, 234; his attainder defaced, 
16; parliaments, 12, 14, 15, 51, 
52-59, 89-91, 132, 147; insti- 
tutes the Yeomen of the Guard, 
14; general pardons, 17, 21; 
requests a loan of 6000 marks 
from the Lord Mayor, 18; mar- 
riage with Elizabeth of York, 
19, 238, 239; his treatment of 
the Queen, 19, 22, 239; pro- 
posal to visit the Northern 
Counties, 20; spends Easter at 
Lincoln, 20; arrival at York, 
ib. ; sends an army against Lord 
Lovel, ib.', returns to London 
from the North, 21; ill-feeling 



INDEX. 



327 



towards the House of York, 22; 
rumoured intention of putting 
Edward Plantagenet to death, 
ib. ; neglect of Irish matters, 26 ; 
anxiety at Simnel's favourable 
reception in Ireland, 27; holds 
a council at Shene, ib. ; makes 
pilgrimage to Walsingham, 34 ; 
arrival at Bury St Edmunds, 
and Norwich, ib. ; realizes the 
danger of the rebellion in Ire- 
land, ib.\ levies his forces for 
opposing the rebels, 35; arrives 
at Coventry, ib. ; holds council 
of war at Nottingham, 36; re- 
solves on a speedy battle, ib.\ 
opposes the Earl of Lincoln at 
Stoke, 36, 37 ; victory there, 37 ; 
spares Simnel's life, 38; orders 
thanksgiving at Lincoln for the 
victory, ib. ; proceeds to the 
Northern Counties and punishes 
the adherents of the rebels en 
route, 39; goes to the Queen's 
Coronation, ib.-, enters London 
in state, 39, 40; celebrates the 
victory of Stoke at St Paul's, 
40; sends to Pope Innocent 
signifying his marriage, ib. ; am- 
bassage to James III. King of 
Scotland to conclude a peace, 
41; receives ambassadors from 
Charles VIII. concerning the 
latter's desire to obtain the 
Duchy of Britain, 43 ; guarded 
reply to the ambassage, 45, 46; 
offers himself as mediator, 46, 
54; promises to send ambas- 
sadors to Charles, 46; perceives 
the latter's intention in acquiring 
Britain, but is unwilling to enter 
into war with France, ib. ; re- 
solves on war in preference to 
Charles's obtaining the Duchy, 
47 ; maintains that Lord Wod- 
vile went without his know- 
ledge to the assistance of the 
Duke of Britain, 50, 51 ; thinks 
to strengthen himself by the 



alliance of Ferdinand and Maxi- 
milian, 52 ; his own views con- 
cerning the King of France and 
the Duchy of Britain, 51, 52; 
sends fresh ambassadors to 
Charles, 60; sends the Earl of 
Surrey to quell the fresh rebel- 
lion in the North, 66; follows 
the Earl, 67; his march, 67, 
259; wisdom as a lawgiver, 69, 
74; loan of ^^4000 from the 
City, 74, 263 ; his designs and 
cares concerning Britain, 74, 
263; sends an army to aid 
Maximilian in Flanders, 76; 
urges him to press on his mar- 
riage with Anne, Duchess of 
Brittany, 77; hatred of Charles 
towards Henry after the fighting 
in Flanders, 77 ; receives the 
Commissioners of Charles, 79 ; 
his reply to them, 85, 86; his 
title to France, 86; sends am- 
bassadors to Charles, 87 ; their 
return, 88; determines on war 
with France, 89; secretly does 
not desire the war, ^\ ; his tact 
in deciding either for war or 
peace, 92; removes the Bene- 
volence tax, 93; preparations 
for the war with France, 94; 
looks after the affairs of Maxi- 
milian for the quieting of Flan- 
ders, ib.; besieges Sluice, 95; 
at Boulogne, 96; orders Thanks- 
giving in St Paul's for the con- 
quest of Granada, 97, 98; keeps 
May-Day at Shene, 98 ; arranges 
his forces for the invasion of 
France, 99; leaves Greenwich 
for the invasion, 100; embarks 
at Sandwich, loi ; at Calais, 
100, 103; march to Boulogne, 
ro2 ; agrees to treat with Charles 
for peace, ib. ; peace concluded, 
ib. ; the sum to be paid to Henry, 
102, 270; spends Christmas at 
Westminster, 103 ; writes to the 
Lord Mayor concerning the 



328 



INDEX. 



peace, ih.\ endeavours to prove 
that the Duke of York was mur- 
dered, 114; sends spies into 
Flanders about Warbeck, 115, 
ir6; sends ambassage to the 
Archduke PhiHp for the dis- 
missal of Warbeck, 116; its 
delivery, 117-119; banishes all 
Flemmings and forbids com- 
merce with them, 119, 274; re- 
moves from Westminster to the 
Tower, 121 ; libels against him, 
126; visits his mother at Latham, 
128; the blot of his times... for- 
feitures upon penal laws, ib.\ 
reputation for cunning, 129; 
proceeds Northwards, 129, 130; 
hangs all the rebels taken in 
Kent, 130; present with the 
Queen at the Serjeants' feast in 
Ely Place, 131 ; joins the Italian 
league against Charles VII 1., 
131, 132; treaty with the Arch- 
duke Philip, 146, 282; subsidy 
granted to, for the war with 
Scotland, 147; perple.xities re- 
garding this war, the Cornish 
rebellion, and Warbeck, 151; 
resolves to attack the Cornish 
rebels at Blackheath, 152; en- 
camps in St George's Fields, 
1 53 ; bannerets created after the 
victory at Blackheath, 155; 
variety and inequality of his 
pardons and executions, 156; 
demands the delivery of War- 
beck as a condition of peace 
with Scotland, 160; truce ar- 
ranged, 161, 285; receives conse- 
crated sword and cap from Pope 
Alexander, 162, 285; ceremony 
at St Paul's in connexion with 
this, 162; rejoices to hear that 
Warbeck is on English ground, 
165, 166; despatches a force to 
Exeter, 166; his entry there, 
168, 169, 286; promises War- 
beck pardon on condition of 
surrender, 169; appoints com- 



missioners for fining the rebels, 
169; their severity, ib.'y peace 
with Scotland, 175, 287; ru- 
mours that he connived at the 
escape of Warbeck, 176; execu- 
tion of the Earl of Warwick, 
178, 179; lays the blame for 
this on Ferdinand, 179; at 
Calais with the Queen, 180; 
meets the Archduke Philip, 180, 
181; conferences with him upon 
cross marriages, 180, 181 ; said 
to have shared in the money 
collected by Pope Alexander's 
commissioner in England, 183; 
this denied by Cardinal Adrian, 
183, 290; urged by Pope Julius 
to engage in a holy war against 
the Turks, 183, 184; his answer 
to the Pope, 184, 185; elected 
by the Knights of Rhodes pro- 
tector of their Order, 185; pro- 
sperous condition of his affairs, 
1 90 ; gives himself up to avarice, 
190-193; cogitations after the 
death of Queen Isabella, 198, 
199; contemplates a marriage 
with the widowed Queen of 
Naples, 199; but abandons the 
idea, 199, 200; sends the same 
commission to the Court of 
Ferdinand about the govern- 
ment of Castile, Queen Isabella 
being now dead, ?^. ; resolves to 
maintain friendship both with 
Ferdinand and Philip, 202 ; 
Philip visits him at Windsor, 
203-205 ; presses him to deliver 
up the Earl of Suffolk, 204; 
asks Pope Julius to canonize 
Henry VI., 207 ; urged by Maxi- 
milian to claim the government 
of Castile, 298; treaty of mar- 
riage with the Lady Margaret, 
Dowager Duchess of Savoy, 207, 
295 ; the marriage postponed on 
account of his health, 208, 209; 
thoughts of his possibly ap- 
proaching end cause him to 



INDEX. 



329 



give himself up to works of 
charity, 209; touched with re- 
morse at the doings of Empson 
and Dudley, ib.\ pays for the 
canonization of Anselm, 298 ; 
his delight at the marriage 
treaty of his daughter Mary 
with Prince Charles, 210; death, 
211, 298; burial, 221, 299; 
general remarks upon, 21 1-22 1 ; 
his wealth at his death, 210; a 
great almsgiver in secret, 212; 
general successes of his arms, 
ib. ; his reverence for his mother, 
215; affection for his children, 
217; favourably compared with 
Lewis XII., 220 

Henry VIII., King of England, 
birth, 88 ; created Duke of 
York, &c. , 121 ; proposed mar- 
riage for him with the daughter 
of the Archduke Philip, 180, 
181 ; created Prince of Wales, 
188, 29 1 ; contracted in marriage 
to the Princess Catharine, 188 ; 
Pope Julius urged to expedite 
the bull of dispensation for his 
marriage, 183 

Henry, Prince, eldest son of James 
I., death, 223 

Henningham Castle, The Earl of 
Oxford entertains Henry VII. 
at, 192, 292, 293 

Heralds, proclamation of pardon 
by, 21, 240 

Heretics, proceedings against, 185 

Heme, one of Warbeck's Council, 
163, 178, 289 

Hialas, Peter, sent to England by 
Ferdinand and Isabella con- 
cerning the marriage of Catha- 
rine of Arragon with Prince 
Arthur, 158; 284 ; proceeds to 
Scotland to treat for peace be- 
tween James IV. and Henry, 
159, 160 

Hill, Thomas, Mayor of London, 
231 ; dies from the sweating 
sickness, 232 



Hobart, James, mentioned by 
Warbeck as being in favour 
with the king, 142 ; member of 
a commission to enquire into 
the extent of the English pos- 
sessions in France, 281 

Holt, inventory of the money 
found at, 275 

Holy Roman Empire, 233 

Hungarians, the, urged by Pope 
Julius to make war upon Thra- 
cia, 184 

Husbandry, act against the decay 
of, 71, 261 

Hussey, Sir William, Chief Justice 
of the King's Bench, 299 

Hydra's teeth, 72, 262 

Imola, Bp. of, legate of Pope In- 
nocent VIII., 247 

Inclosures, statute concerning, 70- 
72, 261 

India, passage to, by sea, 287 

Indian emblem, ancient, 152, 283 

Indulgences, sale of, 290 

Infantry, value of, in an army, 72 

— French, 90 

Innocent VII I. , Pope, bull of, 
confirming the entailing of the 
Crown on Henry VII., 15 ; 
grants dispensation for Henry's 
marriage, 246, 247 ; Henry sends 
an ambassador to, signifying his 
marriage, 40 ; bull qualifying 
the privileges of Sanctuary, 41 ; 
Ferdinand acknowledges his 
help in the conquest of Granada, 
97; the depravity of his Pontifi- 
cate, 247 ; permits all banished 
subjects to return to Rome, ib. ; 
the consequences of this, ib. ; 
causes Gemes to be delivered to 
him at Rome, 265 ; Innocent's 
letter to Henry VII., 303 

Ireland, affection of, towards the 
House of York, 26, 244 ; state 
of, on the arrival of the counter- 
feit Plantagenet, ib. ; the parad- 
ing of the real Plantagenet 



33^ 



INDEX. 



through the streets of London 
produces no effect upon, 30 ; 
the rebels win the Earl of Lin- 
coln over to their side, ib.; parts 
only of Ireland subject to Eng- 
lish law at the beginning of the 
reign of Henry VII. , 244 

Isabella, Queen of Spain, death of, 
195? I97» 198, 294. See also 
under Ferdinand and Isabella 

Italy, Italian league against Charles 
VIII., 131, 132, 278; receipts 
from Italian goods brought to 
England to be expended in Eng- 
lish products, 18, 235; fines for 
non-compliance, 235 ; much 
people but few soldiers in, 72 ; 
the States maintain the balance 
of power in, 253 

James L, King of England, his 
learning, 224; remits Bacon's 
sentence, ib. 

James III., King of Scotland, 
sends deputation to assist at 
Henry's coronation, 248; Henry 
sends an ambassage to, for con- 
cluding a peace, 41 ; his par- 
tiality towards England, 91, 
139, 247, 248; rebellion of his 
subjects, 67 ; death, 68, 259 

James IV., King of Scotland, falls 
into the power of the rebels, 67, 
259 ; devotion to France, and 
hatred of England, 91 ; War- 
beck advised to seek the assist- 
ance of, 135, 136; receives 
Warbeck favourably, 136 ; re- 
ply to Warbeck's declaration, 
139 ; embraces the latter 's cause, 
140 ; enters Northumberland, 
ib. ; consents to the marriage of 
Warbeck with Lady Catharine 
Gordon, ib. ; lays waste Nor- 
thumberland, 145 ; returns to 
Scotland with his spoils, ib. ; 
besieges Norham Castle, 157 ; 
fails and betakes himself to his 
own country, 157, 158; refuses 



to hand Warbeck over to Henry, 
160; begins to suspect the for- 
mer as a counterfeit, 161 ; truce 
with Henry, 161, 285 ; protests 
against the treatment of the 
Scotch at Norham Castle, 173 ; 
asks Bishop Fox's good offices 
in obtaining the hand of the 
Lady Margaret, Henry's daugh- 
ter, 174; peace with England, 
175, 287 ; married to the Lady 
Margaret at St Paul's, 188, 189; 
killed at Flodden Field, 280 

Jane, daughter of Lewis XL the 
first wife of Lewis XII., 255 

Jedburgh, the commissioners of 
Henry VII. and James IV. meet 
at, 284, 285 

Joan, Queen of Castile, grief at 
the death of her husband, the 
Archduke Philip, 206, 207 

Joan, widow of Ferdinand I., King 
of Naples, Henry's thoughts of 
marriage with her, 199, 200, 295 

John, King of Aragon, mortgages 
Russignon and Perpignian to the 
French, 10 1 

John, King of France, a prisoner 
in England, 90, 267 

John II., King of Portugal, and 
the passage to India by sea, 172, 
287 

Joseph, Michael, a ringleader in 
the Cornish rebellion, 148 ; 
hanged at Tyburn, 156 

Jubilee, year of, 290 

Julius, Pope, and the Bull for the 
dispensation with regard to the 
marriage between Prince Henry 
and the Lady Catharine, 183 ; 
urged Henry VII. to proceed 
against the Turks, 183, 184 ; ex- 
communicates the Earl of Suf- 
folk and Sir R. Curson, 194 ; 
asked to canonize Henry VI., 
201, 297 

Juno, the name given to the Lady 
Margaretof Burgundy by Henry's 
friends, 104 



INDEX. 



ZTy-^ 



Justices of the Peace, Statute con- 
cerning, 73, 262 

Kemp, Thomas, Bp of London, 
232 

Kendal, Sir John, Prior of St 
John's, a commissioner concern- 
ing the removal of intercourse 
between England and Flanders, 
146, 282 

Kent, George Earl of, in the army 
drawn up for the invasion of 
France, 100 ; his influence in 
Kent, 150 ; takes an active part 
in the suppression of the Cornish 
rebellion, 269 

Kent, men of, decide against War- 
beck, 129; they encourage his 
adherents to land, and then de- 
feat them, 130 ; the Cornish 
rebels are led into, 150 ; arrival 
of the counterfeit Earl of War- 
wick in, 177 

Kildare, Gerald Earl of, Deputy 
of Ireland, Warbeck asks his 
assistance, 109 ; ordered to sub- 
mit to Sir E. Poynings, 127; 
apprehended by him, ib. ; clears 
himself and is reinstated in his 
government, ib. ; attainted, 277 ; 
the attainder reversed, ib. 

Kildare, Thomas Earl of, espouses 
the cause of Simnel, 26 ; lands 
with the rebel forces at Fouldrey, 
35 ; slain at the battle of Stoke, 

37 

Kilkenny, supremacy of the Butlers 
in, 244 

King, A, by Act of Parliament, 
228 

King of rake-hells, the name given 
by Henry to Warbeck, 165 

King, Oliver, mentioned by War- 
beck as being in favour with 
Henry, 142, 281 ; one of the 
commissioners appointed to meet 
those of Charles VHI., 281 ; 
ordered to take possession of 
Calais, Rysebank, &c., ib. 



King's Bench, court of, 62, 256 
King's Council, conspiracy against 

the, esteemed a capital offence, 

62 
Kneesworth, Thomas, Mayor of 

London, &c. fined, 210 
Knights bannerets, 13, 232 
Knox, John, and the rule of the 

three Marys, 225 
Koran, The, 83, 266 

Lancaster, Condemnation of the 
title of the House of, 228; the 
supporters of the title to be ad- 
judged guilty of treason, ib. 

Lancastrian line, The plea brought 
forward on behalf of the, 228; 
line of descent shown, ib. 

Landois, the Breton minister, fur- 
nishes Richard HL with in- 
formation concerning Henry and 
his followers, 252 

Languedoc, regulations concern- 
ing the importation of wines 
from, 72 

Latimer, Hugh, Bp. of Worcester, 
Sermons preached before Ed- 
ward VL at St Paul's Cross by, 
246 

Layborne, Robert, arrested, 274 

Lease or Grant, statute concerning 
the patent of, 195 

Leicester, Richard HI. buried in 
the Church of the Grey Friars 
at, 225 ; Henry VH. in, 43 

Leinster and Munster, supremacy 
of the Fitzgeralds in, 244 

Leo X., Pope, election of, 260; 
conspiracy against the life of, 
68, 69 ; sale of Indulgences by, 
183, 290 

Lessey, Sir Richard, arrested, 274 

Lewis XL, King of France, Treaty 
of peace with Edward IV., 6, 
227 ; sends forces to seize Bur- 
gundy and the Franche-Comte, 
253 ; recognized as sovereign of 
Burgundy, ib. 

Lewis XIL, King of France, sends 



332 



INDEX, 



the governor of Picardy and the 
bailiff of Amiens to honour 
Henry at Calais, i8i ; lays claim 
to the Duchy of Milan, 290. See 
also under Orleans, Duke of 

Lincoln, Henry VII. at, 20 ; 
thanksgiving there for the vic- 
tory at Stoke, 38 

Lincoln, John, Earl of, declares 
for the counterfeit Plantagenet 
and the Irish rebels, 30; Richard 
III. failing issue resolves upon 
making him king, 30, 31 ; sails 
secretly into Flanders, 31 ; 
settles means of communication 
with Sir T. Broughton, ib. ; 
arrangements for his passing 
over to Ireland with a regiment, 
32 ; lands at Fouldrey with the 
rebel forces, 35 ; decides to give 
battle to Henry, and marches 
towards Newark, 36 ; encamps 
at Stoke, 36 ; slain at the battle 
there, 37 ; genealogy, 245 

Lily, John, bishop of Rome's col- 
lector, 250 

Liveries, igi, 292 

London, the army of, for the in- 
vasion of France, 100 ; meeting 
of commissioners at, for the re- 
newal of commerce between 
England and Flanders, 146 ; 
tumult there on the approach of 
the Cornish rebels, 153 ; the in- 
habitants gain confidence, 154 ; 
plague in, 179 

Long Roger, one of Warbeck's 
keepers in the Tower, 1 76 

Lovel, Francis Lord, attainder, 
17, 234; an annuity from his 
forfeited lands granted to Sir J. 
Egremond, 259 ; raises rebellion 
against Henry, 20; flight, 21 ; 
arrives in Flanders, 31 ; to cross 
over to Ireland with a regiment, 
32 ; slain at the battle of Stoke, 
37 ; rumours concerning him, 
ib. ; rhyme made in Richard's 
reign concerning him, Ratcliffe 



and Catesby, 234 ; particulars 
concerning his share in the re- 
bellion, 239 ; creation of the 
title, 234 

Lovel, Thomas, speaker of the 
House of Commons, mentioned 
by Warbeck as being in favour 
with Henry, 142, 281 

Lovell, Sir Robert, appointed re- 
ceiver of the property of Edmond 
Earl of Suffolk, 293 

Ludlow Castle, death of Prince 
Arthur at, 188, 291 

Luxemburg, Francis, Lord of, one 
of the ambassadors sent by 
Charles VIII. to Henry, 78 

Lytton, Robert, in favour with 
Henry, 281 

Margaret, Lady, mother of Henry 
VII., parentage, 224, 225; piety, 
8 ; her name perpetuated at the 
Universities, 225 ; visited by 
the King, 128; Henry's rever- 
ence for her, 215 ; her dream 
concerning her future husband, 
Henry VI., 220; given in mar- 
riage at the age of nine to John 
de la Pole, afterwards Earl of 
Suffolk, 225; this becomes void, 
ib. ; her three marriages, ib. ; a 
benefactress to various religious 
houses, 225; death, ib. 

Margaret, Lady, Duchess of Bur- 
gundy, succours the Earl of Lin- 
coln, 31 ; secret messages sent 
to her concerning events in Ire- 
land, 31, 32 ; the second wife of 
Charles the Hardy, 32 ; hatred 
of the House of Lancaster and 
designs against Henry VII., ib,\ 
arranges with Lincoln and Lovel 
for the despatch of forces to Ire- 
land, ib.\ Sir John Egremont's 
flit^ht to, after the defeat of the 
rebels in the North, 66 ; called 
Juno by the king's friends, 104; 
her part concerning Warbeck, 
the pretended Duke of York, 



INDEX. 



333 



104-108; orders Warbeck to 
proceed to Portugal and after- 
wards to Ireland, 108 ; gets 
Stephen Frion into her service, 
109 ; Warbeck betakes himself 
to, 1 10, m ; her reception of 
him, 11 1, 112; introduces Sir 
Robert Clifford to him, 113; 
secret flight of the Earl of Suffolk 
to, 186 ; her possessions, 274 

Margaret, daughter of Henry 
ViL, solicited in marriage by 
James IV., King of Scotland, 
174; her marriage to him, 188, 
189; marriage portion and settle- 
ment, 189 

Margaret, daughter of Maximilian, 
educated by the Lady Margaret 
of Burgundy, 32, 245 ; resides 
at the Court of France and 
looked upon as the future wife 
of Charles, 248 ; returns to her 
father, ib. 

Margaret of Savoy, treaty of mar- 
riage with Henry VII., 295 

Marignian, Charles, one of the am- 
bassadors sent by Charles VIII. 
to Henry to treat for peace, 78, 
263 

Marriage by proxy, 77, 263 

Marsin, Francis, sent by Henry to 
enquire concerning the Queen of 
Naples, and afterwards to the 
Court of Ferdinand, 199 ; em- 
ployed in the communications 
between Lewis XII. and Henry, 
295 ; present at the interview in 
1500 between Henry and the 
Archduke Philip, ib. 

Mary, Queen of England, govern- 
ment of, assailed by John Knox, 
225 

Mary, Queen of Scots, govern- 
ment of, assailed by John Knox, 
225 

Mary of Guise, government of, 
assailed by John Knox, 225 

Mary, daughter of Henry VII., 
treaty of marriage with Charles, 



Prince of Castile, 210; the third 
wife of Lewis XII., 255 

Matha, John de, one of the foun- 
ders of the religious order called 
Bons-Hommesof the Trinity, 264 

Matthias, King of Hungary, 
anxious to obtain possession of 
Gemes, brother of Bajazet II., 
emperor of the Turks, 265 

Maximilian, King of the Romans, 
afterwards Emperor of Ger- 
many, accession and coronation, 
233 ; covets the Duchy of Brit- 
tany, 43, 47 ; Henry hopes for 
his alliance, 52 ; encouraged by 
Henry to proceed with his suit 
for the hand of the Duchess of 
Britain, 74, 77 ; the marriage 
performed by proxy, ib. ; re- 
bellion of his subjects in Flan- 
ders, 74, 75 ; taken prisoner at 
Bruges, 75 ; procrastination of, 
77 ; his rage against Charles 
after the latter's marriage to the 
Duchess of Britain, 88, 89 ; 
sends ambassadors to England 
and Spain concerning war with 
France, 89 ; various attempts to 
obtain the town of Dam, 94 ; 
Henry endeavours to restore him 
to his authority, ib.\ totally un- 
prepared for the invasion of 
France, 99 ; Henry's ambassage 
to him, 10 1 ; a party to the 
Italian league against France, 
132, 278; recommends War- 
beck to the King of Scotland, 
136; his marriages, 245, 253; 
urges Henry to claim the govern- 
ment of Castile, 298 

May tournaments at Shene, 98 

Melrose Abbey, meeting between 
the Scottish King and Bishop 
Fox at, 174, 287 

Milan, winning of the Duchy of, 
by Lewis XII., 181, 290; entry 
of the French into, 290 

Milan, Duke of, see under Sfortia, 
Ludovico 



334 



INDEX. 



Mint, laws for the correction of 
the, 73 

Modon occupied by the Turks, 
290 

Montpensier, Count of, appointed 
Viceroy of Naples by Charles 
VIIL, 278 

Moors, power of the, in Spain, 
^3> 265 ; war by the King of 
Spain for the recovery of Granada 
from the, 83 ; final conquest of 
Granada from the, 97 ; the 
slaves of the Moors sing a Psalm 
(Benedictus) for their redemp- 
tion after the conquest, ib.; their 
religious observances at the rais- 
ing of the cross after the con- 
quest, 269 

More, Sir T., on the decay caused 
by turning arable land into pas- 
ture, 261 ; belief in Elizabeth 
Barton, the Maid of Kent, the 
cause of his fall, 276 

Morley, Henry Lovell, Lord, slain 
in the battle at Dixmude, 76, 
263 

Morton, Cardinal, his prefei-ments, 
19, 237, 238, 257, 269; espouses 
the cause of the Lancastrians, 
237; submits on their defeat at 
Tewkesbury, 237, 238; advanced 
by Edward IV. , ib. ; arrested by 
Richard IIL, ib. ; flight into 
Flanders, ib. ; escapes from 
Brecknock, 238 ; his attainder re- 
versed, ib. ; the dilemma termed 
Morton's fork, 93, 238 ; called 
into the Privy Council of Henry, 
18, 19 ; delivers the King's 
speech at the opening of his 
second Parliament, 53-59 ; his 
argument for the levying of the 
Benevolence Tax, 93 ; declara- 
tion in St Paul's concerning the 
conquest of Granada, 98 ; de- 
signs of the Cornish rebels 
against him, 149, 150; Henry's 
avarice imputed to, 214; death, 
182, 237 ; character, 182 



Mort-pays, statute concerning, 93, 
268 

Mountfort, Sir Simon, steward of 
Castle Bromwich, 273 ; sides 
with the counterfeit Duke of 
York, 113; apprehended and 
beheaded, 120 

Murder, statute concerning the re- 
pressing of, 63, 64, 258 

Nantes, siege of, 49, 53, 250 
Naples, the intention of Charles 
VHL to recover, 45 ; the 
grounds on which he rests his 
claim to that kingdom, 249, 
264 ; he determines upon M'ar 
upon, 82, 86 ; his conquest and 
subsequent loss of, 131, 132 ; 
the King of Naples a vassal of 
the Pope, 279 
Nevile, Sir George, his petition to 
the King, 272 ; joins Warbeck's 
party, no 
Newfoundland, discovery of, 286 
Newport, spoils taken to, after 
the battle at Dixmude, 76 ; be- 
sieged, ib. ; the siege raised, 77 
New Romney, extract from the 
Corporation Records of, con- 
cerning the watching of beacons, 
280 
Non-claim, statute of, 70, 261 
Norfolk, John Duke of, attainted, 

16, 234 
Norfolk, Thomas Duke of, marries 
Anne, daughter of Edward IV., 
280 
Norfolk, Dukes of, forfeiture and 

restoration of the title, 234 
Norham Castle besieged by James 
IV., King of Scotland, 157 ; 
skirmish between the English 
and Scotch at, 173 
Normandy, Henry's claim to, 86 
Northern Counties, visit of the 
King to the, 20, 39 ; their devo- 
tion to the Yorkists, 20 
Northern subsidy riot, 65, dd 
Northumberland, Henry, 4th Earl 



INDEX. 



335 



ot, deserts Richard III. at Bos- 
worth, 258 ; appealed to con- 
cerning the Northern subsidy, 
65 ; his reply, 65, ()(t ; is killed 
by the rioters, 66 

Northumberland, Henry, 5th Earl 
of, conveys the Lady Margaret, 
daughter of Henry, to her hus- 
band the King of Scotland, 189, 
292 ; commands at Blackheath, 
292 

Northumberland, arrival of the 
King of Scots and Warbeck in, 
140; the latter's proclamation, 
140-144 ; the Northumbrians 
are not influenced by it, 145 ; 
laid waste by James IV., 145, 
282 

Norwich, Henry VII. at, 34 

Nottingham, council of war held 
by Henry at, ^d 

O'Briens, supremacy of the, in 

Co. Clare, 244 
O'Donnells, power of the, in the 

North of Ireland, 244 
O'Neils, influence of the, in the 

North of Ireland, 244 
Orange, Prince of, taken prisoner 

at the battle of St Alban, 60, 

253 

Orleans, Duke of, afterwards Lewis 
XII., his party in France, 47 ; 
the Duke of Brittany under the 
influence of, 48 ; reply to Henry's 
ambassage, 48, 49 ; alleged as- 
sistance rendered to, by the 
Duke of Brittany, 53 ; taken 
prisoner at the battle of St 
Alban, 60, 254 ; his wife pleads 
for and obtains his pardon, 255; 
kept a prisoner at Bruges, ib. ; 
divorced from his wife on his 
accession, ib. ; a suitor for the 
hand of Anne, Duchess of 
Britain, 248 ; eventually marries 
her, 255 

Ormond, Thomas Earl of, an am- 
bassador to the King of France, 



87, 88, 266 ; in the army for the 
French invasion, 100 ; created 
Baron Rochford, 270 

Orsini faction, 247 

Osbeck, John, the father of Perkin 
Warbeck, 106, 271 

Ostia, siege of, by Charles VI I L, 
131; recovered for the Pope by 
Gonsalvo de Aguilar, 279 

Ottoman Empire, Charles VIII. 
intends the overthrow of, 82; 
divisions in the, 8.^ 

Ottomans, origin of the name, 
264 

Owen, David, mentioned by War- 
beck as being in favour with 
Henry, 142; chief carver to the 
King, 281 

Oxford, mortality in, owing to 
the Sweating sickness, 232 

Oxford, John Earl of, attainder 
and restoration of, 245 ; made 
Admiral, ib.\ a commander in 
the army against Simnel's ad- 
herents, 34, 35 ; general of the 
forces for the French invasions, 
100; leads the army opposed to 
the Cornish rebels, 152-154; 
arraigns the Earl of Warwick, 
178; entertains Henry at Hen- 
ningham Castle, 192, 292, 293; 
fined on account of his retainers, 
192 

Palestine, Henry IV. intends 
making an expedition into, 182, 

183 

Pardons, general, 14, 17, 28, 30, 
156, 167, 211, 298 

Parker, Sir James, and Henry 
Vaughan run courses at Shene, 
99; Parker is accidentally killed, 
ib. 

Parliaments, 12, 14, 18, 52, 53, 59, 
89, 92, 94, 132, 147, 195 ; Poy- 
ning's, 127 

Patrick, an Augustin Friar, in- 
stigates Ralph Wilford to per- 
sonate the Earl of Warwick, 



33^ 



INDEX, 



177; condemned to perpetual 
imprisonment, ib. 

Pembroke, Jasper Earl of, Henry 
VII. born at the castle of, 233; 
made Duke of Bedford, 13 

Perin, provost of, slain by the 
Cornish rebels at Taunton, 149, 
283 

Perkin, the termination kin, 271 

Perpignian, Ferdinand in treaty 
with Charles VIII. for the re- 
storation of, 91; the restoration 
effected, loi 

Peterborough monastery, The 
Lady Margaret a benefactress 
to, 225 

Petrucci, Alphonso, Cardinal, in- 
llueatial in the election of Pope 
Leo X., 260 

Philip, The Archduke, King of 
Castile, educated by Lady Mar- 
garet, Duchess of Burgundy, 32, 
245; Henry sends an ambas- 
sage to, for the dismissal of 
Warbeck from Flanders, 116, 
117; his reply to the ambas- 
sadors, 119; secretly furthers 
the cause of Warbeck, ib.\ 
banishes the English from Flan- 
ders, 120; treaty of peace with 
Henry, 146, 282 ; Earl of Suffolk 
retires into Flanders for the pro- 
tection of, 195; the Spaniards 
better affected to him than to 
Ferdinand, 201 ; the cause of 
this, ib.\ sails with a large navy 
from Flanders into Spain, 202; 
it is scattered on the coast of 
England, ib. ; visits Henry at 
Windsor, 203-205; description 
of hisunintended visit to England 
from Grafton's Chronicle, 296, 
297; offers to deliver up the 
Earl of Suffolk to Henry, 204; 
receives the Oi'der of the Garter 
from Henry, 205 ; arrives in 
Spain and obtains undisputed 
possessionof Castile, 206; death, 
206, 297 



Philip the Good, Duke of Bur- 
gundy, the Order of the Golden 
Fleece instituted by, 297 

Picardy, Louis XI. sends forces to 
occupy, 253 

Picquigny, treaty of, 6, 227 

Pisa, Charles VIII. protects the 
liberty of, 131 

Plantagenet, the counterfeit, see 
under Simnel 

Plantagenets, end of the male line 
of the, 179; where to find names 
of families that can trace their 
origin from the, 289 

Pluto better than Pallas, applied 
to Ferdinand of Spain, 201, 295; 
further note on, 304 

Poictiers, battle of, 90 

Pole, Sir Richard, marries Mar- 
garet Countess of Salisbury, 281 ; 
made Knight of the Garter and 
chamberlain to Prince Arthur, 
ib. 

Pole, Richard de la, brother of 
the Earl of Suffolk, flight into 
Flanders, 293 ; slain at Pavia, 
ib. 

Pole, William de la, brother of 
the Earl of Suffolk, arrested, 
194. 293 

Polonians urged by Pope Julius to 
make war upon Thracia, 184 

Pons, Jasper, Pope Alexander's 
commissioner to England in the 
year of Jubilee at Rome, 183, 
290; returns to the Pope with 
Henry's answer, 185 

Pontefract castle given up to the 
rebels, 286 

Poor suitors, statute concerning, 
135, 280 

Portugal, Warbeck sent by the 
Duchess of Burgundy to, 108 

Poynes, Sir Thomas, friar of the 
Order of St Dominic, arrested, 
274 

Poynings, Sir Edward, treats 
with the people of Bruges for 
their submission to Maximilian, 



INDEX. 



337 



96 ; returns from Sluice to Henry 
at Boulogne, ib. ; one of Henry's 
ambassadors to the Archduke 
Philip, 116, 117; made Lord 
Deputy of Ireland, 127, 268; 
has the Earl of Kildai-e appre- 
hended, ib.\ summons a parlia- 
ment, ?/^.; Poynings' Law, 253, 
268, 277 

Procedures, statute concerning, 
64, 258 

Protection, act in favour of, for 
those in the King's service, 93 

Puebla, Rodrigo de la, Corre- 
spondence with Ferdinand, 295 ; 
Master of Sherborne Hospital, 
ib. 

Ratcliffe, John, apprehension and 
subsequent pardon, 120 

Ratcliffe, Richard, knight of the 
body to Richard III., 234; 
opposes the design of Richard 
III. to marry Elizabeth of York, 
226; attainted, 17 

Ratcliffe, Robert, apprehension 
and execution of, 120 

Ravenstein, Lord, places himself 
at the head of the rebels in 
Flanders, 75, 263; seizes Ypres 
and Sluice, 75; sends to the 
French King for assistance, ib. ; 
an army from France sent to 
his aid, ib.; takes the town and 
castle of Sluice, 94; robs vessels 
on their way to the mart of 
Antwerp, &c., ib.\ yields the 
castle of Sluice to the English, 
96 

Re-coinage, 197 

Redemption of captives, religious 
order of the, 264 

Retainers, laws concerning, 64, 
197, 258; fines inflicted by 
Henry under it, 293 

Rhodes, knights of, 291 ; Henry 
elected protector of their Order, 
.185 

Richard III., King of England, 

B. H. 



his anxiety concerning Henry's 
partizans in Brittany, 252 ; the 
various crimes of which he was 
the alleged instigator, 6, 226; 
his thanks to Tirrel when ap- 
prised of the murder of the 
Princes, 114; attainder, 16; 
rumour that he wished to marry 
Elizabeth of York, 226; mar- 
ries Anne, daughter of the Earl 
of Warwick, ib. ; his disputes 
with the Duke of Clarence re- 
garding the disposal of the 
wealth of the Earl of Warwick, 
ib. ; crowned a second time at 
York, 239 ; design for securing 
the crown to John Earl of 
Lincoln in default of his own 
issue, 30, 3 r ; abolishes the 
Benevolence tax, 93, 268; death 
at Bosworth Field, 5; burial, 5, 
6, 225 ; tomb erected over his 
grave by Henry VII., 225; his 
acknowledged bravery, 226 ; 
good laws made by him, ib. ; 
his memory cherished in the 
Northern districts, 65; genea- 
logical table at the death of, 
229, 230; the author's asper- 
sions on his character, 6; loans 
asked for by him instead of be- 
nevolences, 301 

Richard, Duke of York, murder 
of, 6; design by Richard Simon 
for a counterfeit representation 
of, 23, 25; declared by the 
Duchess of Burgundy not to 
have been murdered in the 
Tower, 105; said to be still 
living, 112; the belief of the 
people in his existence, ib. ; per- 
sonation of, see Warbeck 

Richeforde, Sir William, arrested, 

.274 
Richmond palace, building of, 
171; the King's wealth de- 
posited by him in secret places 
there, 210; death of Henry at, 
211 

22 



338 



INDEX. 



Riot, statutes against, 197 

Riseley, Sir John, one of Henry's 
trusted servants, 269; mentioned 
by Warbeck as being in favour 
with the King, \jfi\ sent by 
Henry to Maximilian to inform 
him tliat his forces were in 
readiness for the French in- 
vasion, 99; a commissioner con- 
cerning the renewal of inter- 
course with Flanders, 146 

Roderick, the last Gothic King in 
Spain, overcome by the Moors, 
265 

Romans, King of the, the title of 
the heir apparent to the empire 
of Germany, 233 

Rome, year of Jubilee at, 183 

Roussillon, Ferdinand of Spain in 
treaty with Charles VI I i. for 
the restoration of, 91, 267; the 
restoration, loi 

Rutland, Edmund Earl of, mur- 
dered after battle of Wakefield, 
279 

St Alban, battle of, 60, 227, 254 

St George's fields, Henry en- 
camps in, 153, 284 

St John, Thomas Poynings Lord, 
one of the King's ambassadors 
to the Archduke Philip, 180 

St Paul's Cathedral, golden eagle 
blown down from the spire of, 
206 

St Paul's palace, 162 

Saint, John, abbot of Abingdon, 
one of the Commissioners sent 
by Henry to the French King, 
50; procures a delay in the 
execution of Humphrey and 
William Stafford, 240 

Salisbury, the Cornish rebels at, 
150 

Salisbury, Margaret Countess of, 
married to Sir Richard Pole, 
281 ; beheaded, ib. 

Sanctuary, rules concerning, 41, 
247 



Sandwich, Henry embarks at, 10 r; 
Warbeck arrives upon the coast 
of, 129 

Saturday regarded as a lucky day 
by Henry, 11, 231 

Savage, Sir John, joins the army 
of the Duke of Richmond, 229; 
killed during the siege of Bou- 
logne, 102, 270 

Savoy, hospital of the, 209, 212, 
298 

Savoy, Margaret Duchess Dowager 
of, betrothed to Charles VHL, 
298; marriage with the Duke, 
ib.', treaty of marriage with 
Henry VIL, 207 

Saxony, Duke of, arrives in Flan- 
ders to settle matters between 
Maximilian and his subjects, 94, 
268; enters Bruges, 94; the 
means by which he took the 
town of Dam, 95 ; treats with 
the people of Bruges for their 
surrender to Maximilian, 96 ; 
they submit, ib. 

Scotland, union of, with England, 
223; rebellion in, against James 
III., 67; the Scotch expelled 
from England, 93, 268; raid 
into the North of England by 
the, 275 

Segovia, English ambassadors at, 

??5 
Seisins, Premier, 191, 292 

Seneca's prophecy, 172, 286 
Serjeants' Feasts, 131, 197, 277, 

278, 294 
Sfortia, Ludovico, Duke of Milan, 
encourages Charles VIII. in his 
claim on Naples, 278; differ- 
ences between them, 131, 132; 
a party to the Italian league 
against Charles, 132; the de- 
viser of this alliance, 278; 
usurps the government of Milan 
from his nephew, ib.\ Charles 
negotiates a peace with, 279; 
flight to Maximilian at the entry 
of the French into Milan, 290 



INDEX. 



339 



Shaw, Dr., Sermon at Paul's 
Cross, in which he asserts that 
the children of Edward IV. and 
Lady Grey are illegitimate, lo, 
231 

Shaw, John, Sheriff of .London, 
arms the citizens against the 
Cornish rebels, 153; knighted, 
284 

Shene, council at, 27, 28, 244 ; 
May tournaments at, 98; fire 
at, 171, 286 

Shene, priory of, Warbeck takes 
refuge in the, 175; the Prior 
intercedes with the King for 
Warbeck's life, ib. 

Sheriff Hutton, Elizabeth of York 
conveyed from the Castle of, to 
London, 9, 10 

Shoreditch, reception of Henry 
VIL at, n 

Shoring act, 134, 279, 280 

Shrewsbury, George Earl of, goes 
to Henry's assistance against 
Simnel and the rebels, 36, 246, 
269; in the army for the in- 
vasion of France, 100 

Simnel, Lambert, the counterfeit 
Plantagenet, sails with Simon 
into Ireland, 26 ; arrival there, 
ib.', believed by the Earl of 
Kildare to be the true Plan- 
tagenet, ib.\ reception by the 
Irish, 26, 27; taken to Dublin 
Castle, 27; proclaimed King, 
ib.\ crowned, ib.\ lands with 
the rebel forces at Fouldrey, 
35; taken prisoner at the battle 
of Stoke, 37 ; placed in service 
in the King's kitchen, 38; com- 
pared with Warbeck, 104-106, 
III, 118 

Silk, statute concerning the im- 
portation of, 195, 196, 294 

Silver, statute concerning the 
calling in of clipped, 196, 
294 

Simon, Richard, the design of the 
counterfeit Plantagenet invented 



by, 23-26; taken prisoner at 
Stoke, 37, 38; confined, 25 

Simonds, William, alias Richard 
Simon, 23 note 

Sion, Sir William Stanley buried 
at, 276 

Skelton, one of Warbeck's council, 
163, 178, 289 

Sluice and its castle taken by 
Lord Ravenstein, 75, 94; be- 
sieged, 95, 96; yielded up to 
the English, 96 

Smerdis, the usurper, 241 

Smith, William, mentioned by 
Warbeck as being in favour with 
the King, 142 ; keeper of the 
hanaper of the Chancery, 281 

Soldiers, statute concerning the 
departure of, without leave, 93 

Somerset, Sir Charles, Captain of 
the King's Guard, 281 

Somerset, John Earl of, a natural 
son of John of Gaunt, 224 

Spain, a probable ally of 
England against France, 90; 
urged by Pope Julius to make 
war upon Grsecia, 184; better 
affected towards Philip King of 
Castile than to Ferdinand, 201; 
Castile and Spain united on the 
marriage of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, 233 

Spalding monastery, Lady Mar- 
garet, mother of Henry VIL a 
benefactor to, 225 

Stafford, Edward, restoration of, 
18 

Stafford, Lord Henry, the second 
husband of the Lady Margaret, 
mother of Henry VIL, 225 

Stafford, Humphrey, attainder, 
240 ; his children deprived of 
their property on account of 
this, ib.; takes sanctuary at 
Colchester, 20; in rebellion 
against the King, ib. ; takes 
sanctuary at Colnham, 21; exe- 
cuted, ib. 

Stafford, Humphrey and Thomas 



22- 



340 



INDEX. 



conveyed to Worcester for exe- 
cution, 240; the execution de- 
ferred, ib. 
Stafford, Thomas, takes sanctuary 
at Colchester, 20; in rebeUion 
against the King, ibr, takes 
sanctuary at Cohiham, ib. ; par- 
doned, ib. 
Stanley, Thomas Lord, the third 
husband of the Lady Margaret, 
225 ; papal dispensation needed 
for this marriage, 233 ; deserts 
the cause of Richard at Bos- 
worth, ib. ; High Constable at 
Henry's coronation, ib. ; created 
Earl of Derby, 13; visited by 
the King at Latham, 128 

Stanley, Sir William, Chamber- 
lain of North Wales under 
Richard IIL, 229; places the 
crown upon the head of Henry 
at Bosvvorth Field, 8; King's 
Chamberlain, 113, 272; sides 
with Warbeck, 112, 113; ac- 
cused by Sir R. Clifford, 121, 
122; causes for Henry's delay 
in the arrest of, 275; examina- 
tion, 122; condemnation, 123; 
execution, 123, 275; his funeral 
conducted at the King's cost, 
275, 276; why did he suffer? 
123-125, 276; his wealth, 123; 
the causes of his death a source 
of terror to the servants of 
Henry, 126 

Star Chamber, 61, 62, 255-257 

Stenbeck, John, a kinsman of 
Perkin Warbeck, 106 

Stile, John, sent by Henry on a 
commission of enquiry about the 
widowed Queen of Naples, and 
afterwards to the Court of Fer- 
dinand, 199; payments to, 295; 
pardoned, ib. 

Stoke, battle of, 25, 36, 37, 243 

Stokker, Sir William, Lord Mayor 
of London, dies from the sweat- 
ing sickness, 232 

Strange, George Lord, joins 



Henry's army at Bosworth,. 
229 ; in the possession of Richard 
III., ib.; goes to the King's 
aid against the rebels, 36, 246 ; 
sometimes alluded to as King's 
brother, 246 

Strangeways, one of Warbeck's 
keepers in the Tower, 176 

Subsidies, 146, 197, 254, 282, 294 

Sudeley castle, 281 

Suffolk, Charles Brandon Duke 
of, a favourite of Henry VIH., 
215, 298; married to Mary, 
daughter of Henry VH., 298 

Suffolk, Edmund de la Pole, Earl 
of, in the army drawn up for 
the invasion of France, 100 ; 
leader of the forces opposed to 
the Cornish rebels, 152, 153; 
pardoned by Heniy after having 
killed a man in anger, but is 
compelled publicly to plead his 
pardon, 185, 186; resents this 
and flees secretly to the Duchess 
of Burgundy at Flanders, 186, 
291 ; returns and is reconciled 
to the King, ib. ; second flight, 
with his brother, into Flanders, 
192, 293 ; Sir R. Lovell ap- 
pointed receiver of his lands, 
&c.,'293; excommunicated, 194, 
294; retires to the Archduke 
Philip, 195 ; conference between 
Henry and Philip concerning 
the Earl, 204, 205 ; his return, 
205 ; conveyed to the Tower, 
ib. ; claims the estates of his 
father, 291 ; executed by Henry 
VHL, 297 

Suffolk, William de la Pole, Duke 
of, attainder, 225 

Surrey, Thomas Earl of, attainder, 
16, 234; forfeiture and restora- 
tion of his title, 234; sent to 
quell the rebellion in the North, 
66; defeats the rebels, 66', re- 
mains in the North to collect 
the subsidy, 67 ; despatched by 
Henry in readiness to oppose 



INDEX. 



341 



an attack by the Scots on the 
North of England, 151 ; Bp 
Fox sends for his assistance in 
the defence of Norham Castle 
against the King of Scotland, 
157; pursues the Scottish King, 
158; takes Ayton Castle, ib.; 
returns to England, ib. 
Sutton, Dr William, arrested, 274 
Swart, Martin, captain of the 
regiment of Almains sent to 
Simnel's assistance in Ireland, 
32; lands with the rebel forces 
at Fouldrey, 35 ; bravery at the 
battle of Stoke, 37; slain there, 
ib. 
Sweating sickness, 12, 13, 232 

Talbot, Sir Gilbert, property of 
Humphrey Stafford granted to, 
240 

Tate, John, Lord Mayor of Lon- 
don, arms the citizens against 
the Cornish rebels, 153, 284 

Taunton, the Cornish rebels march 
to, 149; Warbeck at, 166, 167 

Taylor, Sir John, goes over to 
Warbeck, 1 10 

Te Deum sung on Bos worth Field, 
5; at St Paul's, II, 40, 98, 188, 
269 

Tenures in capite, 191, 292 

Tewkesbury, Lancastrian defeat 
at, 238 

Thomas, Richard, in the army 
drawn up for the French in- 
vasion, 100 

Thomas, Sir Rice ap, sent with a 
force to Exeter, 166; Constable, 
lieutenant, and steward of Breck- 
nock, 285; chamberlain of South 
Wales, lb. 

Thorney monastery. The Lady 
Margaret a benefactress to, 225 

Thracia, Pope Julius urges a war 
upon, 184 

Thwaites, Sir Thomas, treasurer 
of Calais, 273; sides with the 
counterfeit Duke of York, 113 ; 



apprehended, 120; pardoned, 
ib. 

Tirrel, Sir James, examined touch- 
ing the murder of the Princes, 
114; his account, 114, 273; 
arrested, 194, 293; executed, 
115, 194, 273 

Trade, statute against the mono- 
polizing of, 147, 148, 282 

Treason, exemptions from the 
penalty of, 13.:?, 134, 279 

Trenchard, Sir Thomas, proceeds 
with forces to Weymouth, being 
unaware of the cause of the 
presence of King Philip's navy 
there, 202, 203, 297 ; invites 
the King and Queen to his 
house, 203 

Trinity, Bons-hommes of the. The 
religious order of, 78, 264 

Tudor, Edmund, the first husband 
of Lady Margaret mother of 
Henry VH., 225 

Tunstal, Sir Richard, sent by 
Henry to the King of France, 
50, 250; levies the Northern 
subsidy, 67 ; annuity to, 259 

Turberville, John, mentioned by 
Warbeck as being in favour 
with the King, 142, 281 ; con- 
stable of Corffe Castle, 281 ; 
coroner and marshal of the 
King's household, ib. 

Turk's commissioners for Children 
of Tribute, 105, 270 

Tyler, Sir William, in favour with 
Henry, 142, 281 ; controller of 
the King's mines, 281; con- 
stable of Sudeley Castle, ib. 

Urswick, Christopher, Master of 
King's Hall, Cambridge, 249 ; 
Chaplain to the King and his 
mother, ib.\ Henry's ambas- 
sador to the King of France, 
47, 50, 250; also to the Duke 
of Brittany, 48 ; has an audience 
with the Duke of Orleans, 48, 
49; returns to Charles VIIL 



342 



INDEX. 



after his interview with the 
Duke, 49 ; communicates his 
results to Henry, ib.; sent by 
Heniy to Maximilian, 99 ; con- 
veys the Order of the Garter to 
Alphonso, Duke of Calabria, 
104; a commissioner for the re- 
newal of intercourse between 
England and Flanders, 146 
Usury, acts concerning, 58, 64, 
254, 258 

Vagabonds, statute regarding, 196, 
197, 294 

Valois, Felix de, one of the found- 
ers of the Religious Order of 
the Bons-Hommes of the Trinity, 
264 

Vaughan, Hugh, runs courses with 
Sir James Parker at Shene, 99 

Venetians urged by Pope Julius 
to sail with a navy to Constanti- 
nople, 184 

Venice, Duke of, see tinder Barba- 
dico, Augustino 

Verunsel, Lord, a commissioner 
for the renewal of intercourse 
between England and Flanders, 
146 

"Wales, Prince of, the creation of 
the title, 223 

Walsingham, pilgrimage of Henry 
VH. to, 34, 245; he sends his 
banner to our Lady of, 38 

Warbeck, Perkin, introductory 
notice concerning, 104- 1 06; Ed- 
ward IV. said to have been his 
godfather, 105; early years, 106; 
instructed by the Duchess of 
Burgundy how to personate 
Richard Duke of York, 107, 
108; ordered by her to proceed 
to Ireland, 108; thence to Por- 
tugal, ib. ; receives promise of 
help from the French King, 
109; the tale in his confession 
that the Irish insisted first that 
he was the Duke of Clarence, 



then the bastard son of Richard 
III. and finally Richard Duke 
of York, ib.\ sends letters to 
the Earls of Desmond and Kil- 
dare soliciting their support, ib.\ 
proceeds to France, no; arrives 
at Cork, ib. ; his reception there, 
no; leaves the French court, 
no; repairs to the Duchess of 
Burgundy at Flanders, ib.\ de- 
sertions from, 126; resolves to 
make an exploit upon England, 
128; selects the coast of Kent, 
129; his followers who had 
landed there defeated, 130; re- 
turns to Flanders, 135 ; sails 
again into Ireland, 135; ad- 
vised to seek the aid of the 
King of Scotland, ib.', arrival 
and reception there, 136; state- 
ment to the King and his nobles, 
136—139; the King consents to 
his marriage with lady Catharine 
Gordon, 140; enters Northum- 
berland with the Scottish King 
and large forces, ib. ; his pro- 
clamation there, 140— 144 ; the 
Northumbrians uninfluenced by 
it, 145; the King refuses to give 
him up to Henry, 160; begins 
however to suspect Warbeck, 
161 ; leaves the King of Scots 
and sails into Ireland, 161; 
some of the Cornish rebels offer 
to join him, 163; takes counsel 
concerning this, ib. ; hastens 
into Cornwall, ib,\ proclama- 
tion at Bodmin, 164 ; styles 
himself Richard IV., 164, 285; 
besieges Exeter, 164; marches 
on Taunton, 166 ; flight to 
Bewdly in the New Forest, 
167; takes sanctuary there, ib.\ 
promise of life and pardon on 
condition of surrender accepted, 
169; brought to the King's 
Court, ib.\ conveyed through 
London on horseback, 1 70 ; his 
confession printed and dispersed 



INDEX. 



(43 



ib.', publicly read by him, 178; 
the confession as given in Hall's 
Chronicle, 287-289; escapes to 
the coast, 175; takes refuge in 
the Priory of Shene, ib.\ set in 
tlie stocks, 176; conveyed to 
the Tower, ib. ; conspiracy with 
his keepers to effect his escape, 
176, 177; arraigned at West- 
minster, 178; condemnation and 
execution, ib. 

"Wardships, 191, 292 

Warham, William, Abp of Canter- 
bury, one of Henry's ambas- 
sadors to the Archduke Philip, 
117, ■274; a commissioner for 
the renewal of intercourse be- 
tween England and Flanders, 
146 

Warwick, Earl of, called the King 
maker, 226; dispute with Richard 
HI. and the Duke of Clarence 
concerning the disposal of the 
wealth of, ib.\ conspires with 
Warbeck and the keepers of the 
Tower to murder the lieutenant 
and to escape, 176, 177; per- 
sonated by Ralph Wilford, 177; 
arraigned before the Earl of 
Oxford, 178; executed, 178, 289 

Water, John, of Cork, attainder, 
271 

Ways and Means, committee of, 

Weights and Measures, 93 

Wells, the Cornish rebels march 
to, 149 

Wells, John Lord, one of the com- 
missioners for the renewal of 
intercourse between England 
and Flanders, 146; married to 
Cecilia, daughter of Edward IV., 
280; made steward of the Duke 
of Buckingham's lands, 282 

West Indies, 172 

Westminster, Henry VII. spends 
Christmas at, 103, 121; War- 
beck in the stocks there, 176 

Weymouth, The vessel containing 



the King and Queen of Castile 
takes refuge at, 202 

White Rose, the name continued 
to Warbeck's wife, 168 

Whitsand Bay, Warbeck at, 163 

Wilford, Ralph, personates the 
Earl of Warwick, 177; arrives 
in Kent, ib.\ apprehension and 
execution, 177, 289 

William the Conqueror, thegrounds 
on which he claimed his right to 
the English throne, 9, 229 

Willoughby, Sir Robert, sent to 
the Castle of Sheriff- Hutton 
concerning the custody of the 
Lady Elizabeth, and Edward 
Plantagenet, 9, 10; created Lord 
Willoughby of Brook, 18, 229; 
commands the forces sent to the 
aid of the Duke of Brittany, 6r, 
229 ; goes with an army to 
Exeter, 166; further notice of 
the family, 302 

Winchester, the Cornish rebels at, 
150 

Windham, Sir John, arrest and 
execution of, 194, 293 

Windsor, burial of Elizabeth widow 
of Edward IV. at, 29 

Wines, regulations concerning the 
importation of foreign, 72, 
262 

Wood vile, Lord, refused leave to 
go to the assistance of the Duke 
of Britain, 50; he proceeds never- 
theless, ib.\ slain at the battle 
of St Alban, 60 

Wolsey, Cardinal, 207, 298 

Wool, laws concerning, 73, 262, 
289 

Worsley, William, Dean of St 
Paul's, sympathises with War- 
beck, 120; pardoned, 120, 275 

Wyat, Henry, mentioned by War- 
beck as being in favour with 
the King, 142 ; bailiff of the 
Lordship of Methwold, 281 

Wydville, Anthony, created Lord 
Scales, 244 



344 



INDEX. 



of 



Wydville, Edward, Governor 

the Isle of Wight, 250 
Wydeville, Sir Richard, created 

Lord Rivers, 227, 244 
Wykeham, William of, his motto, 

262 

Yeomen of the Guard, 14, 233 
York, Cecile, Duchess of, mother 

of Edward IV,, death and burial, 

132, 279 
York, house of, affection of the 

Irish to the, 26 



York and Lancaster, union of the 

families of, 6, 223 
York, the rebels at, 35 
Ypres seized by Lord Ravenstein, 

75 

Zealand, robbery of vessels on 

their way to, 94 
Zouch, Lord, attainder, 17, 234; 

forfeiture and restoi"ation of the 

title, 234 



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